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The upshot of that mix, especially when harried builders are pressed to produce homes in a fast and furious economic climate, can be perfectly good products installed in a shoddy manner, leading to construction defects, consumer complaints, litigation, negative press coverage and damage to public perception of both the building industry and wood products.
"I fully expect there will be more claims (in the future)," says Randall Carter of APA-The Engineered Wood Association. As manager of Member Services, Carter is APA's point man for performance complaint issues. "There are fewer well-trained people out there doing the work. And people have become more accepting of low quality work," he says.
This could spell trouble for the wood products industry, whose products, field evidence suggests, are increasingly being used without proper attention to even the most basic storage, handling, installation or maintenance recommendations. And with millions of dollars being spent to promote alternative building materials like steel and concrete, an increase in misapplication of wood products by untrained construction workers bodes ill in an otherwise promising construction market.
The problem is widespread.
"It's tough. There's not enough people to do the work," says Roy Harthorn, a building inspector in Santa Barbara, California.
"Overall, it's bad," agrees Gopal Ahluwalia from the economics department of the National Association of Home Builders. "Most places where the market is strong, there is a shortage."
"It limits the amount of work we can do," says Terry Streich, owner of Silver Bullet Construction in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
How the Labor Shortage Happened
While the scarcity of skilled workers became noticeable the past few years, it could have been predicted a long time ago. With aging Baby Boomers leaving construction for retirement or other jobs, there simply are not enough of the next generation coming in to replace them.
According to the National Center for Construction Education and Research (NCCER), the average age of craft workers is 47. Plus, trade unions are weak and apprenticeship programs have faded. Teens don't follow their fathers into the trades like they did decades ago.
"When I worked in construction during college, there were always young guys my age on the job," said Sal Vuocolo, a former builder and now a New Jersey-based engineered wood specialist for APA. "I go to a jobsite now and there are no young guys anymore."
Not only are there fewer young people overall in this country, they often want "softer" jobs in the computer industry or other fields. In fact, even when the demographics shift in a few years, and more people of construction age (roughly 20-35) are around, they aren't likely to be thinking of a future swinging a hammer. According to Skills USA-VICA, which coordinates vocational clubs in high schools, fewer students are learning carpentry this year than last, while clubs for computers and culinary arts have growing memberships.
A related problem is that increasing numbers of those who are filling construction jobs are recent immigrants lacking English-language proficiency. That communication barrier makes the challenge of comprehensive training even more formidable, and underscores the growing need for foreign-language training.
How the Shortage Is Changing the Industry
While efforts are underway to attract youth into the building trades-the Associated General Contractors, for example, has a program aimed at making fifth-grade students aware of the excitement of building--the industry itself is changing in response to what looks like a permanent shortage of skilled workers.
To insure the proper use and installation of building products, and specifically engineered wood products, at least five major entities will play a part-manufacturers, retailers, builders, associations, and building inspection departments.
Manufacturers-Happily, the engineered wood products industry (like all others that expect to survive and prosper in today's competitive market) is increasingly responsive to customer needs. Major product innovations, such as oriented strand board, wood I-joists and laminated veneer lumber-and simple product refinements like improved tongue-and-groove profiles, printed nailing marks on sheathing panels, and "sized for spacing" dimensions-underscore the wood products industry's customer-conscious approach to the marketplace.
Another trend linked in part to quality and performance is the use of prefabricated systems and components, such as structural insulated panels. The fewer pieces and parts, the fewer mistakes likely to be made on the job site. In the future, the NAHB plans to study trends in building product technology and their implications on the labor needed to install those products.
Retailers-As an important link between manufacturers of engineered wood products and their end users, retailers play a key role in ensuring that products are correctly selected and installed.
"The lumberyard has always been the clearinghouse for product training," says Greg Brooks, consulting editor of ProSales magazine. This relationship grows in importance as the skilled labor pool shrinks, and as builders are squeezed for profits by high material and labor costs.
"Builders are pushing so hard to get houses built so fast," Brooks says. "It's hard to believe that there isn't some decline in building quality."
In Brooks' opinion, the lumberyards are evolving to accommodate builders in three major ways-installed sales, prefabrication, and increased investment in truck-mounted forklifts and other machines to put materials where they are needed on a job.
Throughout the country, lumberyards are offering to install the products they sell, or at least act as a clearinghouse for subcontractors. Because the crews are aligned with the retailer, they are less likely to blame the product for construction defects.
"It ends the finger pointing," Brooks says. "The problem came from the same source."
Prefabrication of trusses, walls, stairs, porches and other elements is a growing trend. "One in three lumberyards runs its own truss plant, " Brooks says. "Twenty-three percent have wall panel plants, double what it was two years ago."
As for truck-mounted forklifts, Brooks says 45 percent of the top 350 lumberyards now have these, up 15 to 20 percent from just two years ago. Boom trucks are also becoming more prevalent. All things being equal, a builder is likely to prefer to buy from a lumberyard who can deliver the product to the third floor, where it's needed, instead of in a pile by the road.
Builders-Of course, it is on the jobsite where engineered wood products are installed with care and intelligence, or slapped down in any old haphazard manner. The moment of installation is where retailer, manufacturer or association representatives can offer suggestions and assistance, though their presence on a bustling job site is sometimes unwelcome.
Big builders-such as Hovnanian Enterprises, Inc., a $1 billion builder based in Red Banks, New Jersey-have the resources to train crews. The company not only has an in-house training program, but an in-house training facility. It was there that APA's Vuocolo, for example, recently gave classes on proper installation of OSB roofs and floors.
Increasingly, builder groups are pushing for worker training and certification. The NAHB suggests that builders avoid paying trade contractors by piece work and encourages the use of certified contractors where possible to avoid future call-backs. In fact, hiring framers or carpenters as permanent employees rather than subcontractors is suggested.
"This industry would go a long way toward improvement if we would pay higher wages to the employees we already have," Peter A. Roof, a contractor in Newport, Maine, wrote in a letter to Professional Builder magazine. "All of us must stop thinking in terms of 'cheap labor.' 'Cheap' will be what you get."
Two other factors-computers and the Internet-are expected to help builders achieve the kind of productivity they need to earn more profits, pay higher wages, and attract more desirable workers into the field.
"Our superintendents don't just need to be computer literate," says Andy Moynagh, in charge of business development for A.J. Diana Construction in Santa Maria, California. "They need to be computer savvy."
Moynagh made his statements at a meeting at Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo, California, where builders were invited to tell college administrators what kinds of skills the college should teach in its construction technology department.
Associations-While associations cannot save their industries from the future, they can go a long way in gathering resources and making a positive impact.
This is clearly seen at Metalcon, the giant conference sponsored by the Metal Construction Association and others. Attendees spend as much as $325 each to sit in on such sessions as "Understanding Metal Roofing," "Using Metal Roofing in Deep Snow Country" and "ICBO Approved Method for Framing Without Screws."
The Steel Alliance, the American Plastics Council and the Portland Cement Association are also financing massive promotional and training efforts.
Similar campaigns are now also underway by the wood products industry. Although not specifically a training program, one such campaign seeks to strengthen public perception of the environmental and performance merits of wood products. Closer to the job site, APA also recently launched a proper building practices campaign whose specific purpose is training in order to help assure proper product application and to improve building envelope performance.
That program, which incorporates and builds on long-standing APA training models and efforts, seeks to marshal the collaborative support of builder and dealer associations, other building product associations, public-private enterprises such as PATH (Partnership for Advancing Technology in Housing), design and construction trade magazines, and other stakeholders. It will focus especially on the prevention and mitigation of moisture penetration, which, together with indoor air quality, is now a leading building performance issue.
Building inspectors-Another vital link in the chain of construction quality is the building inspector. Without competent building inspection, the risk of poor quality workmanship is increased. Building inspection departments, unfortunately, are under the same human resource and time constraints as contractors, especially during periods of booming construction.
While building code inspection has never been totally fail-safe at catching subpar structural work-or even blatant code violations-its important to recognize, notes APA's Carter that "their mission is the protection of the health and life safety of building occupants. It's not reasonable to expect that they provide aesthetic quality assurance, or spot every defect in workmanship or detailing that might or might not cause non-life-threatening performance issues down the road."
As partners in efforts to improve worker appreciation of proper building practices and the overall quality of construction, however, the role and importance of building inspectors cannot be overlooked.
In the end, those directly and indirectly impacted by the construction labor shortage seem to agree: more and better training is a key part, perhaps the key part, of the solution. As Carter sums it up: "Good products cannot overcome the results of poor application."
Kathy Price-Robinson, Arroyo Grande, California, is a freelance writer who covers building industry trends and issues.
Also See:
Power in Numbers: A Call to Rural Americans
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