Had the pleasure of recently traveling the roadways of Washington and Montana State with two of Specialty Forest Products salespeople. The purpose of my trip was to listen to what Specialty Forest Products dealer customers had to say about thermally modified wood products and how the product would be received in the eyes of the home improvement retailers once introduced to the product. A variety of home improvement retailers were selected based on size, location and customer profiles to ensure the widest possible variety of responses would be forth coming.

Two product lines along with two species of wood were introduced. The species were thermally modified North American Ash and thermally modified European Pine. The two product lines introduced was thermally modified wood decking and thermally modified wood siding. The profiles that were utilized were 5/4 x 5″ deck boards and two profiles of tongue and groove siding called Nova and Alfa profile.

After the home improvement retailers were explained what thermally modified wood products were and how they could be beneficial over other traditional wood products they were asked to rate the thermally modified wood products from a 1 to 5 rating with 1 being (strongly agree) rating and 5 being (Strongly Disagree).  A variety of different questions were asked on a variety of different topics. A total of 16 retailers were asked to participate with 8 coming from Washington State and 8 from Montana State.

Below are the questions asked and then the responses were weighted and rated from 1 through 5 based on all 16 retailers responses. A total of 10 questions were asked.

No.1 What is the likely hood that your customer would purchase thermally modified wood.

Weighted Response: 3

No.2 Do your customers prefer natural wood products over composite materials.

Weighted Response: 2

No.3 I had not heard of thermally modified wood prior to it being explained to me.

Weighted Response: 1

No.4 Based on thermally modified woods documented claims on durability and stability benefits over traditional wood decking and siding products do you think your customers would find this beneficial and a reason to purchase the products over your other wood product lines.

Weighted Response: 2

No.5 Would the higher cost of thermally modified wood products be a deterrent to your customers wanting to purchase the product.

Weighted Response: 3

No.6 Would your customers want to buy thermally modified woods over imported tropical hardwoods such as Ipe.

Weighted Response: 3

No.7 How likely would your customer give greater consideration on purchasing a “green friendly” product line such as thermally modified wood having the FSC certification.

Weighted Response: 1

No.8 Would your customers consider the benefits of thermally modified wood in their purchasing decision or just purchase on price alone.

Weighted Response: 4

No.9 Would your customers find this beneficial for installation. The thermally modified decking comes random length 4 through 14ft but is end matched to utilize installation using random length deck boards.

Weighted Response: 3

No.10 Is it likely that you will promote and sell thermally modified decking and siding within the 2016 building season.

Weighted Response: 2

We want to thank the following retailers for their participation in the survey.

Dunn Lumber, Power Townsend, Superior Hardwoods of Montana, Boyce Lumber, Refuge Sustainable Building Center, North City Lumber, Green Depot, Emmer Bros. Cedar, Simkins-Hallin Lumber, Kenyon Noble, Chinook Lumber, TRM Wood Products, D.P. Doors & Millwork, Stewart Lumber & Hardware, Kaufmanns Overhead Door Company, Helena Hardwoods.