Efficient Wood Use in Residential Construction: A Practical Guide to Saving Wood, Money, and Forests

Efficient Wood Use in Residential Construction

by Ann Edminster and Sami Yassa, 1998. Natural Resources Defense Council, 40 W. 20th Street, New York, NY 10011-4211; 212/727-2700, www.nrdc.org. Paperback, 112 pages, $15 + $3 shipping

Too often forest conservation activists promote the use of non-wood construction systems without considering the environmental impacts of the alternative systems. In this case, Edminster and Yassa have chosen instead to present ways to optimize the use of wood in construction, thereby minimizing forest impacts without inadvertently causing other problems. They have produced an outstanding reference for anyone building wood-frame houses, full of specific, practical suggestions, potential pitfalls, and cost implications.

This clean, well-designed book is divided into six chapters:

•Chapter 1, Component Systems, addresses the use of trusses and prefabricated panels. Engineered wood products made with petrochemical binders are not included, because “some significant questions remain unanswered about their full environmental costs.”

•Chapter 2, Stressed-Skin Insulating-Core Panels, covers the use of foam- and straw-core structural panels.

•Chapter 3, Optimum Value Engineering, illustrates the ways in which wood use can be reduced in residential framing without sacrificing quality. Among the advanced framing strategies presented are framing on 24-inch centers, aligning trusses and joists over studs to allow single top plates to be used, and sizing headers appropriately for each opening.

•Chapter 4, Certified and Reclaimed Wood, provides sources for procuring these materials. These are the only recommendations that may, according to the authors, increase the builder’s costs.

•Chapter 5, Job-Site Waste Reduction, offers detailed guidelines and sample specifications for reducing and recycling wood waste.

•Chapter 6, Detailing for Durability, provides advice from the Forest Products Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley on avoiding premature rot in exterior wood.

Although

Efficient Wood Use is primarily aimed at California home builders, most of the information is valid throughout North America. Extensive references and contacts are provided with each chapter, and a long list of endnotes documents the sources used in compiling the strategies and savings estimates. The bottom line benefits are emphasized throughout, which should help to get the attention of the mainstream builders NRDC is trying to reach. This cost data alone will ensure the widespread use of

Efficient Wood Use. The rest is icing on the cake.