Grading agency gets called to the office

[Don P]

I think this was probably overdue. More often than coincidence I find the WCLIB stamp on sketchy lumber. They seem to want to be the go to for budget low grade lumber. European lower strength lumber very often comes in from their agencies under WCLIB's oversight as well.  This showed up in the American Lumber Standards Committee minutes this month;

The Board of Review, in executive session, met with Mr. DeVisser to discuss
performance concerns with WCLIB's lumber program. Following a lengthy discussion,
the Board of Review, in a motion made by Mr. Bible and seconded by Mr. Taylor,
unanimously elected to express their concerns with WCLIB's performance in
correspondence to WCLIB's Executive Vice President and WCLIB's Board members and
instructed staff to continue a full review of WCLIB lumber activities through survey of
mills and ongoing review of WCLIB records.
The Board of Review also requested that the ALSC review policies regarding
reimbursement to ALSC for costs associated with atypical investigations of adverse
performance of accredited agencies and their mills/facilities/plants.

[Don P]

From today's minutes.

The BOR discussed the performance of West Coast Lumber Inspection Bureau ("WCLIB"), particularly with regard to lumber originating from certain European mills which WCLIB inspects. The BOR reviewed staff reports indicating that destination checks by WCLIB and ALSC staff over the past month show continued significant concerns regarding grade quality of lumber coming from several WCLIB mills in Europe for multiple months of production.


Following the discussion, a motion was made and unanimously approved to give notice to WCLIB of the BOR's plan to take action as provided for under section 16.2.2 of the American Lumber Standard Committee BOR Lumber Enforcement Regulations (the "Enforcement Regulations") and sections 10.6, 10.9, and 10.10 of Voluntary Product Standard PS 20-15 ("PS-20"). The BOR directed staff and counsel to give notice to WCLIB as provided in section 16.2.1 of the Enforcement Regulations to appear before the BOR on April 27, 2018 for a hearing, which will proceed according to the applicable provisions of the Enforcement Regulations and PS-20.

[Southside]

Kinda sounds like a "Stop, or I will yell Stop Again!!" letter..

[starmac]

OK, now tell me, is this european lumber some kind of exotic lumber that we can't use our own for?  In other words, why are we importing it in the first place?

[Don P]

Predominantly Norway Spruce and Scots Pine. The problem is a little more insidious than that even. When I get a set of house plans it will usually specify the dimension and minimum species and grade of lumber to be used for all or specific members. Very often there will just be a note that says "All lumber to be #2 SPF or better".  WCLIB has for many decades sold SPF-S, southern spf which is a weaker group. Generally it slips through inspectors because most inspectors can't or don't read stamps and almost no carpenters can, none of the general public can. So, they've slid by on the ignorance of the overseers and the public.

Remember the architect or engineer is specifying that minimum, commonly available and used #2 SPF. The European species are about 20% weaker than that. They look very similar to SPF, in fact for awhile the big box stores were stocking them on the shelves interchangeably with SPF until they were busted for it. Many smaller chains and mom and pop building supplies don't know the difference. So we have a situation where the lumber that gets used is a good bit weaker than the engineers called for. In order for me to actually check the design values for a particular European stick I have to look it up by species, grade, and country of origin, N-SPR Estonia has a different set of design strength values than N-SPR Finland for example and all of them are lower than what any set of plans I've ever encountered called for. This past year they have decided to add 2 more countries of origin for N-SPR, US and Canada.

Why are we importing it... cost. One factor that I think I see is that when we jack the Canadian tariff we see more of this. I suspect some of it is essentially dumping. I had one house when my lightbulb came on to pay attention to the stamps that had 9 countries of origin and one bootleg stamp. I don't know if it is still up but at one point WCLIB had a page that basically said of the eurotrash "It's better than the numbers, its really interchangeable with conventional lumber". This investigation is showing it is probably even worse than the low strength numbers because of poor oversight. I accepted some on a job even after I knew better because I was in a pinch. A ceiling joist broke under me. Needless to say, not a real fan.