SP Glulams Remain a Top Performer

Many dealers are growing their southern pine sales by offering a line of stock glued laminated beams. Available in a variety of standard widths and depths, glulam products are ideal for garage door, window and door headers, center girder and floor edge beams, plus roof ridge beams and commercial beams and purlins.

Treated glulam beams and columns have become popular in raised floor construction, raised wood decks using longer spans, coastal residential construction applications, and in areas prone to excessive moisture exposure. Manufacturers have taken an active role in telling customers about the impacts of new design values for visually graded southern pine dimension Iumber.

Kerlin Drake, v.p., Anthony Forest Products, El Dorado, Ar., offers an update: "With the reduction of certain southern pine design values, representatives of the glulam industry took quick action on retaining the design values of southern pine glued laminated products that use visually graded dimension lumber. home to be built to a higher quality standard with the potential to save them money over years of ownership.

"While serving on the Southern Pine Inspection Bureau's technical committee dealing with southern pine design value reductions, I communicated directly with designers, using an APA/AITC white paper that justifies keeping the same design values for our stock 24OOF-1.8E glulam products. The validation of current glulam design was assured by existing special grading rules for glulam laminating stock over the standard visual rules for dimension lumber, along with a successful full-scale testing program to destruction using actual 2400F beam production."

Every day, the South's abundant forests are removing and storing carbon from the atmosphere. Forest management increases carbon storage by harvesting older. slower-growing trees and replacing them with younger trees.

Life-cycle analysis is an objective, science-based method to compare environmental impacts of product choices and building assemblies. In a life-cycle analysis of building materials. southern nine is unmatched. It begins and ends naturally. From harvest to home, SP products are some of the most environmentally sustainable and regulated materials in the world, manufactured and distributed according to forest certification standards.

Treated southern pine offers not only a good value to customers, but also a green solution for building outdoors. When compared with nonwood alternatives, the manufacture of treated SP decking requires dramatically less energy and fewer finite resources. Selling treated SP lumber gives dealers the satisfaction of knowins that the material not only features a long service life, but reduces demands on America's forestlands for replacements of decayed untreated materials.

Southern pine online

These days, more dealers having difficulties sourcing specific southem pine products are turning to SFPA's online product locator. Here, dealers can search among 400+ product listings and be directed right to the manufacturers' contact information. It's a handy, time-saving tool and just a few clicks away at southernpine.com. SFPA members regularly update their product listings, assuring on-time delivery to dealers and distributors.

The locator is also an opportunity for SFPA members to list hard-to-find items. "Delivering a quality product is our number one priority, and a dealer has many options when ordering," notes Ron Coker, sales and marketing manager, Hood Industries, Hattiesburg, Ms. "Offering long lengths plus the anti-mold protection on all our products are popular selling points."

In addition to the product locator, southernpine.com is the authoritative resource for product information. The site now offers more features, easier navigation, and the latest product details. Within its publications section, SFPA's lumber library is a collection of helpful titles that dealers can rely on to help educate themselves and their customers about the proper selection and use of SP materials.

The best foundation

A new home starts with a solid foundation. For over l0 years, SFPA has actively touted the merits of raised wood floor foundation systems. Successful dealers know that when they promote raised floor foundations, they can add fully a third more lumber to the typical framing package.

"For today's informed homebuyer and builder, a raised wood floor system is the premium foundation choice, with exceptional advantages in terms of aesthetics, comfort, security, and ease of construction," says Cathy Kaake, SFPA's senior director of engineered and framing markets.

Southern pine's dependable strength and availability offers builders the best option for beams and floor joists. Cost-conscious contractors have discovered that treated wood pilings can provide significant savings over a traditional concrete grade beam with masonry piers when building a raised floor home. A wood floor system can also save the builder time and reduce labor costs.

SFPA's raisedfloorliving.com presents all the facts and selling points of this proven foundation concept. The site is conveniently divided into two sections-one for consumers and one for professionals. The pro side offers a handy locator to find a local architect, engineer, designer or contractor experienced in raised wood floor construction techniques.

SFPA-at your service

The products dealers sell are the result of the latest man-