Stronger, More Sustainable, Wood Houses

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Oriented Strand Board: OSB. In the construction trade they call it—forgive me—Old Shit Board. Not from disrespect for its positive attributes, which are considerable, but for its composition. Any old wood scraps and a bunch of glue. It’s ratty-looking and untested for the long haul (if, for instance, you hope your house might last a hundred years), but on the other hand, it’s stronger, cheaper, truer, and more sustainable than actual new lumber. Conventional new lumber today warps and twists and is generally rife with knots that result in waste and can compromise its strength. OSB, though light in weight, is strong, easy to work, and reliable. Builders love it. Coming to the decision to use OSB for floor joists in our new house has been a major compromise—not a rational or practical one, but emotional.

Thomas and I both grew up in Oklahoma. Not the flat/wheat/oil/cattle/sagebrush part, but the rolling hill/muddy creek/deciduous woods part. Even after thirty years on the Front Range plains of Colorado, which we’ve long since come to call home, we both miss the trees. We spent a lot of time as kids sitting up in trees, reading in trees, dreaming in trees, communing with tree bugs, falling out of trees. Post oak, pin oak, black oak, sweet gum, walnut, pecan, hickory, osage orange, magnolia, black locust, elm, willow, redbud—these were our friends and neighbors. Red, gold, and maroon in fall, misty chartreuse and tender pink in spring, layer upon layer of elemental, humid green through the hot summer—we miss it. Thomas even still dreams of trees, big trees, often.

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