Lumber Grading Workshop Educates Local Building Code Officers & Sawmill Operators

HORTONVILLE, NY – The Watershed Agricultural Council’s (WAC) Forestry Program recently held a series of one-day workshops in Delhi, Hortonville, and Gilboa for local building code enforcement officers, sawmill operators, architects, builders, and engineers. The trainings -- “Using Locally Produced Framing Lumber: The Local Option” -- focused on the use of regionally produced structural softwood lumber in residential and commercial buildings. During the three days of trainings, over 200 people learned the basics of softwood lumber grading and how to identify critical framing lumber characteristics.   

Each day-long course ended with a local sawmill tour.  Depending on the workshop location, participants visited Pawlikowski’s Sawmill in Delhi, Hofer Log & Lumber in Callicoon, and Hardwoods Unlimited in East Conesville. The mills participate in the Pure Catskills Buy Local Wood campaign that promotes local forest products on www.catskillwoodnet.org.

According to Collin Miller, a Forester with the WAC, the option to use local rough-sawn lumber has existed within in the New York State Uniform Fire Prevention and Building Code for over twenty years. However in 2002, a change to the rule was discovered which prevented building code officers from accepting structural lumber without a grade stamp or a record of inspection from a certified grading agency. The grading agency covering the Catskills Region is the Northeast Lumber Manufacturers Association or NeLMA. Since no mills in New York belong to one of the official lumber grading agencies, the mills could no longer sell directly to customers without involving a costly third-party inspection by a grading agency.

“Due to the size and nature of local sawmills – small retailers and portable milling operations – paying for membership to a softwood grading agency is not practical for Catskill lumber producers,” states Miller. “In many cases, the annual membership dues and periodic inspections would cost more than the total value of their product. Operating in a predominantly hardwood region means that most operations here are just too small for that.”

Through efforts of the Empire State Forest Products Association, the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), and the NYS Building Codes Council, the Code was amended to reinstate the “local option.”  The rule was permanently adopted into law in June 2003 and is  the only law of its kind in the Northeast.

To offer guidance with this issue, the WAC brought in Al DeBonis of Wood Advisory Services, Inc. of Millbrook, NY to teach the one-day workshop.  DeBonis  taught attendees on how to grade lumber so it meets the necessary standard for locally produced material. DeBonis was well qualified for the workshop; he has a PhD in wood science and engineering and has strength-tested and graded lumber from all over the world. The Black River St. Lawrence RC&D Council and  the NYS DEC Forest Products Utilization Program originally developed the lumber grading workshop and program.

“When you grade lumber, you look at several different characteristics,” DeBonis said. “Two of the most important are the size of the knots and the orientation of the grain, which are two of the strength producing characteristics. In our course, we show people how to guarantee they are producing good quality material.”

During the seminars, DeBonis explained the different grades and how to produce structural lumber that would be acceptable by building code officers in most applications. The workshop also instructed participants how to identify #2 quality lumber, as most simple construction is satisfied with #2 quality material.

“The seminars we’ve put together will not make anyone a certified lumber grader,” states Miller of the WAC. “We are just helping sawmill owners understand their product well enough, and with a level of confidence, to know their materials will meet the standards.”

The mission of the Watershed Agricultural Council is to support economic viability of agriculture and forestry as preferred land conservation measures to protect water quality in the NYC Watershed. WAC is supported by the U.S. Forest Service, New York City Department of Environmental Protection and other private, public, and  foundation sources. The Watershed Agricultural Council is an equal opportunity employer and provider.