Plywood is a very verstatile and cheap board that can do a lot of things. Besides furniture making and house building, it can be used in so many occations. Look around and you will find so many plywood application.
Plywood as a window protection in hurricanes
The typhoon and hurricanes make great threat on the houses along the coast and on the islands. It is convenient for a family to cut plywood and nail it on the windows. Not only cheap, but also doable.
Recently U.S. plywood producers claimed Brazilian plywood has a high risk of failure in major hurricanes, but consumers can’t tell because the imported wood is falsely certified as structurally grade. In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Fort Lauderdale, the companies allege that since 2017, two American inspection firms and an accreditation agency failed to perform their quality control when millions sheets of plywood was imported into the U.S. via Florida.
“As a result, U.S. residents who live in buildings constructed with low grade Brazilian plywood are exposed to high risk of injury or death, particularly in the event of a hurricane” the suit says. Chinese plywood have been tarriffed a lot in 2017.
PLYWOOD USED AFTER MARIA
The plywood is mainly used in the construction of residential and commercial buildings. Homeowners use it to help protect their windows from high winds and storm debris during hurricanes. In a call interview, plaintiff attorney Michael Haglund, of Portland, Ore., said on Sept. 6 that some of the plywood in question was used to help with rebuilding in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria.
“The really unfortunate fact is that it is being passed off as structural plywood when it can’t meet that standard,” he said.
The suit was filed by a group of 10 plywood producers in the South and Pacific Northwest against inspection services PFSTECO of Wisconsin and Timber Products Inspection Inc. of Georgia. A third defendant named in the suit is International Accreditation Service of California, which is the accrediting service for the two inspection firms.
DENIED BY COMPANY
Timber Products President Jay Moore denied the allegations last Friday when the South Florida Sun-Sentinel contacted his company.
“We have reviewed the allegations of the complaint and believe that they are both misleading and totally without legal merit,” Moore said by email. “Timber Products will defend itself vigorously in court and is confident that the facts will show that its conduct and practices were in all respects consistent with its responsibilities and the standards applicable to plywood industry.” Moore said he would offer a more detailed response to the allegations in the near future. The two other companies couldn’t be reached for comment despite telephone messages.
SAMPLED BY LAB
In the complaint, the U.S. producers allege that 30 companies operating 35 plywood plants in Brazil “ have been wrongly stamping millions of square feet of structural plywood panels imported into the United States” as meeting American standards.
The American producers, who also allege in their complaint that Brazilian plywood is driving down the prices and quality of plywood on the U.S. market, said they had a nonprofit lab in Washington state teststarting samples of the imported plywood in 2017.
The U.S. producers’ suit, which alleges false advertising and negligence on the part of the inspection services, is seeking $300 million in damages and wants the court to direct PFS-TECO and TPI to “immediately withdraw” the Brazilians’ licenses to make structural plywood.
