FSC Wood

Sustainable Forestry – How The Wolf Tree Plays a Role

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There are a lot of bad actors in the lumber industry. However, to lump in every lumber company as a villain of the Earth is both unsubstantiated and very misinformed. Case in point, we recently received a letter from someone who insisted that we were not an eco-friendly lumber company. This person was concerned about …

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A Vinyl Deck that Uses PVC Can Be Hazardous

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According to the Healthy Building Network’s report on PVC in Buildings, “PVC is the worst plastic from an environmental health perspective, posing major hazards in its manufacture, product life, and disposal.” That’s not some sales guy talking here. The HBN is making this statement because of a chemical used in PVC and vinyl decking called …

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Deck Design – Green Building with Ipe Decking – Part 2

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Deck Design of the Week Green Home in Michigan Yesterday, you saw the beginning stages of a green building project designed by Danny Forster, host of Build it Bigger & Extreme Engineering on the Discovery Channel. The finished Omena Lake front home is truly spectacular. Two features that are of particular interest are the extended …

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Wholesale Decking is Available

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Ipe decking is such a reliable, durable, and YES, renewable wood material that it is gaining increased notoriety throughout the world. In the United States, this exotic hardwood is being used in a variety of commercial applications. Local cities and municipalities that need commercial decking are even starting to use ipe in eco-friendly parks and bridges. In doing research I have found architects using ipe for both siding and sunscreens.

From hotels, to resorts, to restaurants, to office buildings, there are many commercial decking options available. By far, the one clear cut favorite among architects, designers, and business owners is ipe decking and Brazilian walnut flooring. The main reason for this is because commercial ipe can be both cultivated and harvested from environmentally safe and sound forestry practices. At AdvantageLumber.com, offer wholesale decking and are constantly shipping eco-friendly ipe to commercial building projects throughout the United States.

Commercial Decking

With green building gaining increasing popularity,

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Deck Design of the Week – Ipe Used in NYC’s High Line Park

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Deck Design of the Week New York City High Line Park New York City is constantly evolving. From the people to the architecture, New Yorkers are used to the constant changes that take place. As any New Yorker knows, there are a lot of places that can make the city seem brand new. One such …

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LEED Requirements & Ipe Wood

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There are many different LEED requirements that builders and architects can take advantage of. One particular credit is the MRc7 credit.

If a green building project uses a certain percentage of FSC wood, they can qualify for this LEED credit. If you want to qualify for this LEED credit, your project must have installed at least 50% of FSC wood. An exemplary performance Innovation in Design credit can be attained if you use 95% FSC certified wood.

There are many different kinds of FSC wood available including:

  • FSC Ipe
  • FSC Cumaru
  • FSC Tigerwood
  • FSC Garapa

The great thing about building green and LEED construction projects is that they are extremely creative. The green building revolution is certainly pushing the envelope when it comes to how hardwoods like ipe wood can be utilized. One such example that I recently found was the recently opened Eco Park in the Discovery Green Conservancy project in Houston, Texas. 60% of the wood used throughout the whole park used ipe hardwood. Using ipe hardwood helped the Discovery Green park project earn a Gold level LEED certification.

The designers and planners of Discovery Green chose ipe for the following reasons:

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