EXPO 2009

June 11-13, 2009

in New Orleans

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May 1, 2009

Project Home Again: Phase Two

Project Home Again is coming full circle. PHA is a 20-home development funded by the Riggio Foundation that lets candidate families swap properties destroyed by Hurricane Katrina for a new raised floor home designed to be energy efficient and withstand future hurricanes. In turn, the foundation hopes to redevelop the properties acquired in the swap to trade with other homeowners displaced by the storm.

With the first 20 homes completed and residents moving in, phase two has been launched. Developer Green Coast Enterprises and TKTMJ Inc. are building 11 raised floor homes on swapped properties in the Gentilly neighborhood of New Orleans. The new homes feature foundations supported on treated piling. The builder reports substantial cost savings (approximately $15,000 per home) using piles instead of the grade beams and masonry piers used for the first set of homes. Using piles also speeds up the framing process. Homes are being sited, piles driven and framing completed, all in three to four days. 

TKTMJ’s Thomas Tubre noted he has paid careful attention to building these homes to maximize savings on flood insurance, relying on Base Flood Elevation (BFE) guidance provided during the first construction phase by Cathy Kaake, SFPA’s senior director of engineered and framing and a certified floodplain manager. All homes feature borate-treated framing.

Though the process is slowed somewhat by permitting snags, title searches and other required legal work, many more homes are on the way, dotting the Gentilly area with glimmers of hope as the city continues rebuilding.

Members Invited to Participate in Assessment

SFPA producing members are invited to participate in a Southern Pine Sawmill Assessment being conducted by industry consultant Wade Camp on behalf of the Southeastern Lumber Manufacturers Association.  The assessment is intended to give SP sawmill owners and operators insight not available in other reports regarding recovery trends, cost competitiveness and profitability. There is no cost to participate, and individual company data is kept in complete confidence – only summary data will be distributed. 

Statistics will be collected for more than 60 SP lumber manufacturing benchmarks, including recoveries for lumber and by-products; cover costs, including delivered timber gross and net wood; manufacturing and labor costs; and administration and corporate overhead costs. The assessment will also cover production rates, including bucked logs per hour, sawmill and planer Mbf per hour plus Mbf per man-hour and kiln-drying and turnover time. The product mix development for the assessment includes grade, length and width mix.

"If the response rate is adequate, benchmarks will be ranked within peer groups, such as timber cost by state, net wood costs by state, recoveries by log type and product mix type," Wade said.  

Click here to download a copy of the assessment, which should be completed no later than June 12. A summary of the preliminary findings will be presented at SLMA's Annual Conference in July, and a full report will be distributed to those who participated in the assessment in late August.

Staff Members Represent SPC at Conferences

SFPA staff members represented the Southern Pine Council and its marketing programs at two recent events. Cathy Kaake, senior director of engineered and framing markets and a certified floodplain manager, spoke to about 170 people attending the Louisiana Floodplain Management Association’s annual conference April 22-24 in Covington, La. “Elevation Prevents Inundation” was the theme of the conference, and Cathy’s presentation explained that raised wood foundations were the “smart way to elevate.” Cathy told attendees about efforts by SPC and other wood associations to promote the use of raised wood foundations and outlined how raised floors help reduce flooding losses and can save money for homeowners over the long run. She reports floodplain managers are embracing the role that elevating homes plays in floodplain management. For details, contact Cathy at 504/443-4464, ext. 213, or by e-mail at ckaake@sfpa.org.

Meanwhile, Richard Kleiner, SFPA’s director of treated markets, attended the American Wood Protection Association’s annual meeting April 19-21 in San Antonio. Richard reports members of the T-2 Lumber and Timber Committee approved a proposal to reduce preservative retention levels for ACQ-D for interior and above ground exterior use categories UC1, UC2 and UC3A and UC3B.  Retentions will be reduced from .25 pcf to .15. Ground contact retentions remain unchanged. Contact him at extension 211 or by e-mail at rkleiner@sfpa.org for more information.    

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