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As you plow through your questions about home construction projects with E.L. Morse Lumber, let's examine a much broader question about wood product: where does all that lumber come from, anyway? Lumber Lovers The United States is one of the biggest consumers of lumber in the world, if not the largest, primarily because of home construction. It is likely that the wood in your floorboards, your cabinets, even the wood frame inside of your walls all came from different places throughout the world. We are definitely living in a global economy, folks. Buying and Selling For example, when it comes to your home frame and trusses, they're usually made of softwood lumber. The specific types of trees used in frame lumber are spruce, pine, and fir trees. Over 80% of that lumber comes from our friendly, maple-loving neighbors in Canada—and the amount of softwood lumber we import from them is over ten times what we export. Either Canada has a lot of lumber, or we build a whole lot of houses, or both. We get about 13% of our softwood lumber from Chile, New Zealand, Sweden, Germany, and Brazil. What about sheathing on a home? That's what comes next! They're made of plywood or oriented strand board, which can either be made of softwood or hardwood. America manufactures a great deal of strand board ourselves, but about half of our needs are still met by some of our friends in Canada, Ireland, and Germany. The softwood plywood is also imported to some degree from Canada, Brazil, and Chile. Moral of the Story As you may have noticed, the tree resources in Canada may actually be the structural foundation for at least half of the wood, if not more, in homes throughout the entire United States of America. The next time a fellow American makes a put-down pun about how Canada is only good for their maple syrup and "eh" puns, you can ask them where they got the sweet, cushy home that they live in. It's likely they'll either say their parents or their own sweat and tears, but you can let them know the nutty truth. It was thanks to the Canadians and their moose-ridden forests. If you're interested in learning more about where lumber comes from, or perhaps there's a certain type of wood you want for a project, you can ask the people at your local lumber yard, such as E.L. Morse Lumber. They should be able to get you what you need, what you want, and what fits your budget best.
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