3 Stages to Choosing Quality Building Materials: Wood
There are many questions that come up when it comes to a home remodeling project such as:
“Should we go all out or just do this room?”
“Carpet or hardwood?”
“Dark or light colors?”
But the one question we are guaranteed to hear from every client is: “How much will it cost?”
At Benchmark Construction, we make sure we are looking out for your budget, but also want to make sure we are providing quality building materials along with service and expertise. When it comes to your project, the materials needed for the framework is definitely not the place to trim the budget.
Starts in the Lumber Yard
When it comes to choosing the right materials for your project, it starts with choosing the right lumber yard. This is where we’ve worked to build a trusted relationship with our lumber supplier, Beisser Lumber, so that we can know we’ll provide a consistent product every time. Our supplier has provided a consistently great product and it’s why we continue to do business with them.
What We Look For
Each type of wood has its own characteristics and quirks. For instance, oak is known to be a strong, heavy, and more durable wood, maple can come in a variety of colors depending on the sapwood, and ash is also strong and durable but has a lighter coloring. Once you get past these areas, then you move on to the obvious issues. These include:
Warped or Twisted Boards-boards that aren’t plumb or have a curvature to them. This causes issues later when you go to install drywall, base trim, and door and window installation. It can also be referred to as crowning.
Cracked Boards-this can affect the integrity of the framework as well as later work done around this affected board.
Waning-by definition, this is “a defect in a plank or board characterized by bark or insufficient wood at a corner or along an edge, due to the curvature of the log.”
Final Inspection
Each piece received gets inspected before it ever makes it into a project. We want to eliminate the possibility of defects or call back issues from the start. If we find a warped or twisted board made its way into the stack, it’s sent back to the lumber yard. There is ZERO tolerance for that kind of building material because frankly if we were building this for ourselves we wouldn’t use it. This is a big part of the Q in our QVE hallmark for Benchmark Construction. It only takes a moment or two to look things over before you start building so it’s always a part of our process.
Benchmark Construction wants to make sure that your home remodeling project is done the best it possibly can be, all the way down to the materials. A quality building project starts with the right materials and through our years of experience can we know what that quality looks like. Lumber is a natural product and as such, there will be slight deformities due to how it grew and was handled, but by trying to mitigate this upfront you can help avoid possible issues during and even after your project is finished. Those few extra minutes we take are what help make the end product look much better.
When it comes to your next home improvement project, don’t just look for the cheapest person to do the work. Trust an experienced contractor who understands the value of choosing proper building materials as well as having the proper measurements and blueprints.
