Opportunities for Out-of-Grade Sawn Pine in Sustainable Building Systems

Sawyers across the world are challenged with the task of finding a profitable market for the large volumes of sawn timber which fail to meet the specifications of their chosen structural grading system, while also meeting the demands of the increasing structural timber market. As more people begin to see and discuss its many benefits, the use of structural timber in construction will continue to increase across the globe however, intrinsically this also means an increase in out-of-grade timber. It is time to take a 21st century look at the out-of-grade resource, at advances in building technologies and in sustainable building systems and bring these together to use out-of-grade to supplement the in-grade market in structural applications. This paper will briefly discuss what characteristics to expect in a pack of out-of-grade Australian structural pine. It will identify opportunity for incorporation into sustainable building systems and introduce a range of modern building technologies that could be used to facilitate the use of out-of-grade.