Dealers promote EWPs for industrial 6 commercial

[NSTEAD of wringing their hands labout the housing slump. some leading retail dealers are hanging on and continuing to move a fair volume of engineered wood products throughout their trade area.

They are finding that non-residential and institutional construction is helping to fill part of the gap caused by reduced housing starts.

Two Utah dealers who sell to Rocky Mountain contractors as well as Midwest customers report that engineered wood, particularly glulam timbers and LVL, are holding up better than conventional solid sawn lumber. This is particularly true for construction of churches, schools, museums, and light commercial buildings.

Sunroc, with five locations in Utah, has found that engineered wood for commercial and institutional con- struction has not declined as much as dimension lumber. This includes custom homes, especially cathedral ceiling houses with exposed glulam roof beams, and custom outbuildings, such as oool enclosures and cabanas. kevin Horne of Sunroc says he is seeing more optimism in the building materials market, although it still has a ways to go before it reaches sales levels of 2007. Sunroc obtains most of its glulam and other EWP from distributor/wholesaler J.M. Thomas Forest Products, Ogden, Ut.

Technical reps from J. M. Thomas are outfitted with laptop computers and cell phones for quick access to the home office and fast answers to contractor questions.

Sunroc believes that "two-thirds of promotion is motion" and continues to hold social events for its contractor customers, including barbecues and golf tournaments.

At Cantwell Lumber, Smithfield, Ut., Wayne Cantwell reports that glulam and other engineered wood sales are slowly getting healthier, but are still far behind 2007 levels. "Many banks are reluctant to make loans, and that has really impacted the housing market." Cantwell says.

"We are determined to avoid employee layoffs because we want to maintain a good level of service for our customers and be fullY staffed when the market recovers," he adds.

Despite the slump in single-family housing, Cantwell Lumber has seen a slight increase in engineered wood and dimension lumber sales so far this year. The company sponsors a customer golf tournament in cooperation with the local Chamber of Commerce.