Page 66 - Green Builder Sept-Oct 2020 Issue

FROM THE TAILGATE By Ron Jones

New Offerings for the Sustainable Minded

Sticks and Stones

N A MOST IRONIC TWIST, it seems that
the recent explosion in the price of softwood
lumber may be the factor that, once and
for all, tips the U.S. housing industry over
I the brink and into the ­st century—the
straw that broke the camel’s back, as it were. The
ridiculously outdated practice of stick framing the
vast majority of new homes in this country could
„nally be circling the drain to oblivion, where it
would join the horse and buggy, along with the
phone booth.
Imagine the panic of the industry dinosaurs
and their special interest advocacy organizations
as they are forced to awaken to the realization
that the price crutch they’ve been hobbling on
all these decades is being pulled out from under
them, and that they are in danger, at long last, of
being dragged kicking and screaming into the age
of advanced building science, innovative building
systems and technology.
As they scramble from one federal agency to
another, attempting to preserve whatever is left
of the status quo in order to prop up their pro„t-
driven, lowest-common-denominator business
model, they remain blind to the opportunity
to truly make a claim that is currently false:
American housing is the envy of the world.
As hard as it is to imagine, there are still many
parts of the world where people are forced to use
any materials available to piece together basic shelter. Mud, sticks, belong to a previous century. It can be attributed to price-centric
rocks or whatever they can lay their hands on become components business models, fear of change or just plain laziness. Whatever
in their desperate attempts to provide even the most primitive the case, the home buyer and renter are entitled to our best e‰orts.
protection from the elements. I’m hopeful that the lumber price crisis forces the industry to
raise the ‹oor and the standard of living along the way. Maybe more
Shamefully, right here in our own country, there are pockets of builders will „nally see the need to re-examine their way of doing
populations who still survive without electricity, running water things and embrace the opportunities to explore all the resources
or basic sanitation. The industry has turned a blind eye to these available to us, paving the way to a better-built environment for
unfortunate folks. It considers them little more than outliers to be everyone.
kept in the shadows when celebrations of success and prosperity Fortunately, there is a growing number of builders who don’t need
are o‰ered up as the image builders want to share with the world. an external crisis like the price of lumber to compel them to look
Frankly, in spite of all the great home building and home builders for better solutions. They are already producing superior results and
out there, the standard of the industry remains an embarrassment in continually seek ways to improve every aspect of their work. Here’s
many cases. Too many homes are still built to the absolute minimum hoping they will lead us into a new day for the building industry,
allowable requirements, and with materials and methodologies that one we can all be proud to be part of. GB

64 GREEN BUILDER September/October 2020 www.greenbuildermedia.com

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