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July 31, 2009

New Tool Touts Benefits of Treated Wood

Ask and you shall receive. After hearing a presentation about the Real Outdoor Living campaign during SFPA’s Midyear Meeting last month, a member suggested Southern Pine Council members could help spread the word about the benefits of using pressure-treated wood in outdoor applications if they had some written material to use. The agency who handles the campaign – redpepper of Atlanta and Nashville, Tenn. – heard the request, and the perfect one-pager to explain why everyone should “love wood” was born. Titled “Something to Talk About,” this informative sheet can be shared with dealers, distributors and anyone else who needs basic facts on why pressure-treated wood is the best, most economical and earth-friendliest material available for outdoor applications. Here’s a link to a PDF copy. Members can download and distribute the piece to their audiences by e-mail, through regular mail or via their company’s sales representatives.

For comments or more information on the sales piece, contact Georgiann Gullett, SFPA’s communications manager, at 504/443-4464, ext. 216, or ggullett@sfpa.org; or Kim Drew, SPC’s public relations consultant, at kimdrewpr@bellsouth.net.

The Real Outdoor Living campaign is being coordinated by the Southeastern Lumber Manufacturers Association with the help of a grant received through SPC.

Raised Floor Living Campaign Heads into Northeast Florida

Efforts to introduce Raised Floor Living in Northeast Florida are off and running thanks to a kick-off event that drew more than 200 people last week in Jacksonville. While in town, Cathy Kaake, SFPA’s senior director of engineered and framing markets, and Sarah Materne of the public relations and marketing agency that coordinates the Raised Floor Living campaign, also visited several local media outlets to explain what raised floor living is and why it’s coming to the Jacksonville area. Cathy and Sarah met with staff from the Jacksonville Business Journal, Jacksonville Magazine and Jacksonville Magazine’s Home. “We were able to discuss the campaign’s overall goals and our activities in the Jacksonville market,” Cathy said. The two also finalized a partnership with Jacksonville’s CBS (WTEV) and FOX (WAWS) affiliates to help communicate the benefits of raised floor living to local residents. Beginning Sept. 21 and ending Dec. 7, six two-minute segments will air every other week during newscasts on both stations. The stations will also run 30-second spots promoting the segments and a “Design Your Dream Home” sweepstakes being sponsored by Raised Floor Living for Northeast Florida residents.

Meanwhile, the kick-off event launched a “Raise the Floor 2009 Design Challenge” for builders and designers cosponsored by APA, SPC, the Northeast Florida Builders Association and the Florida Wood Council. Builders who want to use a raised floor design for an upcoming project will submit applications. Designers will submit raised wood floor home plans for the design competition. The winning design will be constructed by the winning builder and used to demonstrate the advantages of raised floor homes through open houses and trade media. The services of the selected designer will also be awarded as a prize in the “Design Your Dream Home” sweepstakes.

SFPA members exhibiting at the launch event included Anthony Forest Products, Georgia-Pacific, Weyerhaeuser and Smart VENT Inc. For information, contact Cathy at 504/443-4464, ext. 213, or ckaake@sfpa.org.

More Good News on Housing Front

Sales of new single-family homes in June were up 11 percent over May, the U.S. Census Bureau announced earlier this week. June sales were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 384,000 compared to a revised May rate of 346,000. That’s the highest sales number posted since November 2008 when 390,000 single-family homes were sold. The seasonally adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of June was 281,000, which at the current sales rate, represents an 8.8-month supply. Click here to see the full news release with national and regional statistics.

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