Industry News & Press
See What's New at American Pole & Timber

If you are buying wood right now, something does not add up. Order files are soft. Sawmills are running well below capacity. Nobody is describing a building boom. And yet the number on your quote keeps creeping up. The instinct is to assume demand is back and the market is heating up. It is not.…

What is XPile™? XPile™ is a fiber reinforced polymer marine piling that replaces steel, concrete, and treated timber in docks, piers, marinas, and bulkheads. It does not rot, rust, or corrode, and it is immune to marine borers. Built for the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast, XPile™ carries a 50-year design life and is sold…

Salt-killed wood pilings are one of the most misunderstood failures on the Texas coast. The surface looks fuzzy and broken down, so people assume it is rot. It is not. It is not an organism, and no preservative treatment reliably stops it. It is a function of the wood itself, and once it starts there…

Ordering timber trusses is not like ordering lumber. Every truss is custom, every project has different load requirements, and there are details that can cost you thousands of dollars if you discover them too late. Most of those details never make it into a sales brochure.1 This guide covers seven things that experienced timber truss…

Pressure treated pilings marine construction projects along the Gulf Coast face some of the harshest service conditions in the wood construction industry. Saltwater marine borers, storm surge, UV exposure, and constant wetting cycles all work against the piling. The right specification protects the structure and your margin. The wrong one builds in a replacement cycle…

Pressure treated lumber for decks isn’t a single specification. Deck boards, joists, beams, stair stringers, posts, and railing components each face different exposure conditions, and the AWPA Use Category system assigns different treatment requirements accordingly. For most residential projects, the key distinction is UC3B (Above Ground, Exposed) versus UC4A (Ground Contact, General Use). Inspectors, architects,…

The timber trusses vs rafters decision comes down to what you want the ceiling to look like and what you need the roof to do. Rafters (stick framing) are individual boards cut and assembled on site. Prefab trusses are factory-built 2×4 frames hidden above drywall. Heavy timber trusses are engineered from large timbers (6×6 and…

Gun Barrel Pilings® are the only uniform-diameter, no-taper wood pilings available today. Every piling holds the same diameter from top to bottom and runs perfectly straight for up to 52 feet. That consistency turns the structural element into the finished look. There is no need to wrap, clad, or hide it. This guide covers 7…

If you own waterfront property along the Gulf Coast and you are thinking about building a dock, there is a good chance you have already looked at some photos, talked to a neighbor who built one, and started wondering what it actually costs. That is a fine place to start. But the conversations that matter…