After review, Southern Pine gets good report card

The Southern Pine Inspection Bureau (SPIB) has submitted its proposed design values for all grades and sizes of visually graded Southern Pine dimension lumber to the American Lumber Standard Committee (ALSC), which will meet on Oct. 18, 2012, to hear testimony from interested parties. The ALSC board of review will then make a final decision regarding any new design values.  

The SPIB analysis of the full in-grade test data resulted in a recommendation of smaller reductions for the wider widths and higher grades as compared with the No.2 2x4s, and even some small increases as compared with current design values. The analysis also resulted in upward revisions to some of the new design values that became effective June 1, 2012, based only on No.2 2x4 data. 

There is no proposed change in Southern Pine’s specific gravity value of 0.55. Design values for shear and compression perpendicular-to-grain also will not change.

“The results are encouraging, better-than-expected news for Southern Pine lumber producers and users,” said Cathy Kaake, VP technical marketing for the Southern Forest Products Association. “For example, the impact on joists, rafters and headers is smaller than originally projected due to smaller reductions for the wider widths commonly used for those applications.”