There's a new breed of building products that are changing the face of the building industry. They're called engineered building materials, and as conventional building materials become more expensive and harder to get, more homebuilders are using these new materials.

One class of these products that is becoming widely used is "engineered" wood. Wood that once laid on the mill floor and was thrown away is now part of a new age of building materials.

But are engineered wood products weaker or inferior to solid pieces of lumber ? No, they are designed by licensed structural engineers to do their job well, and have withstood rigorous testing at national labs. The advantages of engineered wood are better performance for the cost, a reduced use of natural resources, and less waste on the job site.

One of the most common uses of engineered wood are roof and floor trusses. The builder gives the house plans to a licensed engineer at the truss mill who designs a configuration of wood members and special metal fasteners that safely bear the load of the building.

A major environmental benefit is that short pieces of small dimension lumber can be used in a truss. This spares the trees in old growth forests-the source of the longest spans of lumber.

Engineered studs are another wood product gaining acceptance among builders and homeowners. These studs are made of short pieces of wood that have finger-like joints cut in each end that are glued together end to end. Wood that was once considered too short to be used for structural purposes, and often just went to the landfill, is now made into finger-jointed studs. Engineered studs are strong, straight and less likely to warp after installation like many solid lumber studs.

If your builder, architect, or designer is specifying engineered products in your home, it means he or she is using smart and proven building technology that is cost-effective. And by incorporating engineered materials into your home, the builder is using a material that may have once gone to waste, and is protecting resources-such as old growth forests-that can never be replaced.

Don’t you hate it when you’ve got a huge pile of aluminum shavings lying around after a big project and think, “What a waste! I should really do something with this glistening pile of metal!” Well, the folks at Renewed Materials had the same brilliant thought, and created a solid surfacing material called Alkemi. By binding aluminum scrap with resin, they have produced a striking alternative to the typical surfacing products on the market. Best of all, its exotic look doesn’t come at an exotic price; it’s comparable to the lower-priced levels of Corian and granite.

Like most solid surfacing materials, it can be custom shaped, sanded, buffed, and joined to fit a variety of applications. What gives Alkemi its particular appeal is what’s inside: a minimum of 60% post-industrial scrap aluminum. Once bonded with polymeric eco-friendly resins, the aluminum scraps create a hard, strong surface, suitable for countertops, tables, sinks, or tiles.

The reflective property of the suspended aluminum creates two visually compelling patterns. The first is where the scrap is completely incased in the colored resin. The second is where the material has been honed or cut and another thin layer of resin poured over the top. A variety of colors are available, attributable to integrally colored resins and/or colored aluminum scraps.

They also have some interesting, but less visually stimulating opaque versions in black and white. But we’re willing to look past that, because these come in quite possibly the coolest…..samplebox….ever! There’s no official indication that the box is made from recycled content - but it definnitely looks like it. The icing on this earthy cake is the dramatic effect of the name branded into the container.

Recycling paper is often just about creating more (you guessed it) paper, but a Minnesotan company by the name of All Paper Recycling has been taking recycled paper and converting it into a lovely and versatile new building material called ShetkaSTONE. Completely made from all types of recycled paper (including waxed paper, glossy paper, and magazines), plants, and cloth fibers ShetkaSTONE can be used to create anything from doors, counter tops, benches, molding, soap dishes, and more.

Created by Stanly J. Shetka, president of All Paper Recycling, Inc., the patented process involved in creating ShetkaSTONE, creates a slurry made of the pre and post consumer waste which is then formed into the hardened product. Due to its recycled content, ShetkaSTONE has a 100% sustainable life cycle. Both the waste created in the manufacturing process as well as products that have become damaged or reached the end of the cycle can go back into the manufacturing process at ShetkaSTONE.

The strength and thickness of Shetkastone can be controlled during the creation process. The end product can go through any variety of construction methods including being sawed, sanded, glued, nailed and screwed together, as well as finished by sealants currently used on wood and stone.

Paper products account for 40% of the solid waste in the US, and only a small portion, (white and newspaper) are actually being recycled. The mission of All Paper Recycling, Inc. is “to reduce pre-consumer and post consumer waste through the creation of environmentally responsible products and building materials made from wastepaper, cloth or plant fiber.”

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