Use of Composition Board and Other Wood-Base Products in Mass Building

Mass home building, particularly the construction of prefabricated houses, provides an expanded market for new building products. Composition board and other wood sheet materials have the greatest opportunity for improving their market position, provided they can afford the builder equal performance at lower cost, or better performance at equal cost. Large scale expansion of the market for wood base composition, fiber, ply, and chip boards in the housing market will be accelerated by closer cooperation between manufacturer and builder with more attention to specific end use. Solution of the economic problems will be more feasible through the consideration of entire assemblies and the physical properties necessary– strength, rigidity, insulation, vapor transmission, durability and appearance, rather than through the consideration of a single product without reference to other materials involved. This will require the development of techniques for the economical testing and evaluation of the many combinations of framing spacing, and materials that may be feasible. Even within a specific usage, such as interior finishes, the potential will be improved through the development of materials as part of a system to include connection to framing and to other materials, jointing methods, and finishing techniques. Basic and authoritative technical data will aid materially in the builders’ evaluation, in the obtaining of necessary approvals, and in the merchandising of new products. In comparison to competitive materials with fixed properties, the ability of the manufactured wood-based boards to be varied in density, resin content, fiber length, etc. with the resulting influence on their physical properties appears to be a prime advantage. This suggests that they are capable of gaining competitive advantage against less expensive materials through the design of structural or other functions into the product that will provide corollary savings to the builder. In connection with such properties, the possibility of 8-foot wide sheets for both exterior sheathing and interior finish material of wall construction seems a logical development, as does the extension of roof sheathing boards to greater spans.

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