Reducing Lumber Reliance in a Volatile Market

The current volatile softwood lumber market is prompting stakeholders up and down the supply chain to take a fresh look at any and all construction method and material alternatives. While replacing wood framing with cold-formed steel doesn’t make sense for most projects, there are fortunately many other options and iterative steps in between those two framing methods.

To that end, MiTek recently published a document entitled, “MiTek Insights to Combat the 2020 Lumber Shortage.” In it, the company outlines many ways component manufacturers, framers and builders can either reduce the amount of wood fiber used in a building’s design or replace some wood-based structural elements with cold-formed steel alternatives.

While this document focuses on MiTek solutions in illustrating several concepts, it’s important to note the market is not limited to just their products in pursuing several of these ideas.