New Hampshire Senate bill gives preferences to US lumber in state-funded building projects

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): A bill moving forward at the State House aims to address a decades-old discrepancy in how wood strength is rated.

On Tuesday, New Hampshire lawmakers approved Senate Bill 529, which gives preference to U.S.-harvest lumber. The bill requires state-funded building projects to include design specifications for U.S.-sourced spruce-pine-fir, known as SPFs.

"I'm looking for New Hampshire lumber to be treated as equal to the Canadian grading designation," said Rep. Arnold Davis, R-Berlin.

In the early 1990s, the U.S. and Canada developed separate systems to rate the strength of framing lumber. Canadian lumber is labeled SPF, while American lumber is labeled SPFs.

SPFs ended up with a lower design strength value, even though the wood used on both sides of the border is nearly identical.

"I live 8 miles from the border. Within 10 miles of my house, there's a huge softwood mill in Quebec, and I can tell you I've seen many New Hampshire trucks unloading New Hampshire logs in their pile, and I don't see it being sorted from the Canadian logs," said Rep. Mike Ouellet, R-Colebrook.

Over time, the difference in design specifications has given Canadian lumber a competitive advantage, putting Hampshire lumber at a disadvantage.

While lawmakers can't change international industry standards, they can influence how the state purchases lumber for its own construction projects.

"We're trying to take the first step so that designers, architects and engineers recognize the fact that if you want American wood in this building, you have to refer to it as SPFs," said Wes Robichaud of the New Hampshire Retail Lumber Association.

The bill is intended not only to promote American-made products but also to reduce costs.

"A 2-by-6-by-10 is probably 30 cents more coming from Canada than from New Hampshire," said Sara Belletete of Belletete's Inc.

 Courtesy: www.wmur.com