How buildin$ codes affect LBM market opportunities

\ZOU'RE drivin-e along and see a I new four- or even five-story hotel being built with wood framing. But, you've always heard that building codes greatly restrict the size of nonresidential buildings framed with wood. Wondering how it's possible that wood is the construction material of choice for these buildings?

Much of that "restriction" is now only a perception, not reality. Thanks to a little-known group, over the last few years the wood products industry has been very successful getting building codes to permit larger and taller wood buildings. That group, AF&PA's American Wood Council (AWC), has ensured that building code changes, now being enacted in all 50 states, provide tremendous opportunity for wood in markets historically dominated by steel and concrete.

The International Building Code (IBC), the content of which is used virtually everywhere in the U.S., provides architects, engineers, contractors