Friday, December 24, 2010

Interior Doors made from straw?

Press Release

Homestead Interior Doors, an Ohio based company, introduces doors made with agricultural fiber bi-products, a.k.a. straw. You heard it right, straw!

The straw is specially processed and mixed with environmentally friendly resins and glues to create an exceptionally strong, urea-formaldehyde free, particle board substrate known as "Microstrand" wheat. This wheat based particle board is used as a core for the door components. Real wood veneers and edgings are then overlaid onto it to create beautiful wood doors in a myriad of wood species. This process reduces the amount of wood needed to build a door by up to 80% yet still giving consumers the look and feel of an all wood door.

Pricing of wheat core doors is comparative to doors made with traditional particle core construction but is substantially less than doors made with solid wood construction. Don’t worry, Homestead Doors is still offering their beautiful solid wood doors for the traditionalists, but with the addition of the wheat core doors are now able to give their customer base more options for LEEDS credit projects and environmentally conscious consumers. For more information and literature on Homestead’s beautiful wood doors please contact them at info@HomesteadDoors.com .

Monday, February 8, 2010

FSC Certified Doors

FSC stands for Forest Stewardship Council. The council originated in the 1990's theoretically to promote responsible forest management. Right now it is a voluntary practice with no direct role from government. However it is an indirect government requirement as a result of LEEDS mandated construction projects.

In the authors humble opinion one of the principle guiding forces of this program is the belief that individual woodlot owners as well as State and National Forest managers do not have the ability to manage forests in a "responsible" way. It is certainly not a stretch to believe that the long term goal of the FSC would be to eventually dictate forest management practices for all public and private lands by lobbying for Federal laws that require FSC certified wood products in all National Building Codes. FSC certification is supported by Greenpeace, National Wildlife Federation, The Nature Conservancy, Sierra Club, and World Wildlife Fund.