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Abstract
New residential construction is a critical driver of the demand for lumber, structural panels and engineered wood products in Canada. For the period 2010 through 2013, residential construction accounted for roughly 23 percent of the lumber consumed in Canada and 47 percent of structural panel usage. Insufficient data concerning imports and exports prevent estimates of the residential share of engineered wood products consumption. The focus of this study is for the year 2013. Based on the data provided by Home Innovation Research Labs survey of home builders, 1.262 billion board feet (bf) of lumber, 226 million board feet equivalent (bfe) of engineered wood products and 1.133 billion square feet, 3/8-inch basis (ft
2) of structural panels were required to frame and sheath the new single-family units built in 2013. The construction of low rise multifamily unit buildings is estimated to have required 522 million bf of lumber, 113 million bfe of engineered wood products and 292 million ft
2 of structural panels. The primary competitive building materials include concrete for floors and walls, steel for framing, nonwood sheathing products for exterior walls and plastic composite lumber substitutes used for outdoor deck surfaces. Estimates of the use of these products in single-family and multifamily construction provide the means for developing potential increases in wood products utilization. In total, the potential gain in lumber and engineered wood usage by substituting away from steel, concrete, and plastic decking products is 316 million bfe. The potential gain in plywood and OSB usage by substituting away from concrete and other competing sheathing products is estimated to be 338 million ft
2.
Keywords
Residential construction,
Canada,
single family construction,
multifamily construction,
wood products consumption,
value of new construction,
lumber,
structural panels,
nonstructural panels engineered wood products,
wood I-joists,
glulam,
structural composite lumber
Citation
Elling, Joe; McKeever, David B. 2015. Wood products and other building materials used in new residential construction in Canada, with comparison to previous studies. Tacoma, WA: APA - The Engineered Wood Association. 103 pp.
