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Founded in 1977, Exterior Wood set out to do something extraordinary.
Roughly three decades later, we're leading the pressure treatment industry in both quality and inventory.
At Exterior Wood, we serve retail building supply centers throughout the western United States and Canada. We offer the region's largest number of SKUs, or in other words, the widest array of pressure-treated products. From the day we receive a shipment of lumber to the day we send it to you, our process is rigorous and involved - in fact, you can rest assured our products are the finest on the market.
We receive our wood from the region's top producers of raw lumber, at which point we inspect each piece, sort it into the right grade for the right application, then apply the treatment appropriate for that use. Using low-toxicity chemicals, we guard against insect damage, rot, and fire while preserving the natural beauty and character of the wood.
Afterward, the lumber heads to our distribution center where it's carefully stored and rotated until it's time to ship. With our own fleet of trucks, as well as the use of contractor trucks and rail cars, our distribution team is busy around the clock.
You can explore the full range of what we offer through our Products links, but in brief, we focus on providing pressure-treated lumber for major core applications:
Simply put, our goal is excellence.
We're finding the best available lumber, incorporating innovations in our products and techniques, caring for the environment, and doing a better job at what we do.
Depend on our full line of materials to be there, ready for your call and delivered on time. Make your order in units, or in smaller customized quantities.
Something on your mind? Since 2003, we've been actively courting the opinions of our customers and associates. If you'd like to be a voice of influence in our company, we'd like to hear your input. Click our Contact link and tell us what you think.
For your business and ours, "excellence" means continually striving to improve ourselves.
That's just a piece of what we bring to you... every day.
Family-owned since 1977, our business is powered by a tight, professional team of people who know what they're doing and enjoy what they do. We like to think that's part of our success. Relationships matter, both in-house and business-to-business, and we take care of them - by loving what we do, and by having the integrity to do it well.
More and more people today are realizing how much stewardship matters. Exterior Wood is no exception. We're making the choice to work toward a healthier planet and thriving resources; you can learn more on our Environment Page.
You've earned it. We can help you maintain it.
Every day you're proving your competency to a range of customers, from homeowners to professionals. You're offering service, support, and expertise to people with changing needs. You're aspiring to build a reputation for your environmental conscience.
Most of all, you're working to be the place your customers go, the name they think of and rely on.
Good news.
When you partner with us, it's that much easier to keep your stride.
DISTRIBUTION PAGE: Click here
Huge quantities of lumber, a broad range of sizes, a variety of applications.... At Exterior Wood Distribution, we pride ourselves on keeping all our products in stock. Whatever your need, chances are we've got it right here on the ground, just awaiting your word.
Open for business from 6 in the morning till 8 at night, we're there for you throughout the evenings, too. And even when we do hang the "closed" sign, we work around the clock to make sure our trucks are running on time, delivering the lumber you need right to your door.
Add to that, your order is prepped and delivered by a crew of hard-working people who place value on both accuracy and excellence.
Exterior Wood supplies thirteen western States with high-quality lumber and prompt, regular deliveries. Our own fleet of trucks runs from the Canadian border to Southern Oregon, and from the shores of the Pacific to the mountains of Central Oregon. For longer trips, we contract outside carriers. Our dispatchers work carefully to orchestrate routes, drops, and weight requirements for a truly efficient shipping approach.
At Exterior Wood, we pride ourselves on maintaining a wide array of products at all times. Throughout the day, our Distribution Center keeps in close touch with the other branches of our operation to make certain that incoming inventory stays tuned to your needs. That's why you can rely on prompt, effective response time when you place your order with us. You name it, we've got it ready for you.
Meanwhile, we're constantly loading outgoing trucks with large deliveries, to be ready for our drivers when they pull in just after midnight. Every night, our drivers strap down their loads, get their paperwork, weigh in, and hit the road before dawn.
Throughout the day, we also receive orders for small, odd quantities. These orders print on individual tags to be picked up periodically by our "piece pullers," people assigned to find the pieces requested and prep them for delivery. Other crew members handle the thousand small tasks that accumulate between orders. In fact, our grounds are alive with activity all around the clock: we rarely see a slow moment inside the Distribution Center.
Exterior Wood offers the largest number of SKUs in quantities readily available to meet the needs of our customers. It's a key part of Building Relationships.
Every person who works in our Distribution Center is trained to load trucks, pull orders, and operate a forklift. This simple practice lets us get the job done even when we're at our busiest. Supervisors, dispatchers, forklift drivers, as well as clerks have the skills to lend a hand when others are occupied.
As mentioned, our teams work around the clock on a day shift and a swing shift, and both teams are positive about working together. Because we care about our crew's morale, we do our best to prevent burnout, switching the shifts every 4 weeks to allow each member to alternate overtime with family time.
Filling special orders is just another aspect of superior service. We're happy to break our units into custom sizes at your request. Maybe it's an order for a retail yard with a smaller forklift, or perhaps the lumber is headed for a rail car and needs some extra bands. In each case, adjusting our units to meet your needs is simply part of what we do.
From the kiln-dried products in our dry sheds, to the racks of sorted lumber set aside for customized units, to the row upon row of large, paper-wrapped units in our main yard... at Exterior Wood Distribution, we have what it takes to serve you. Namely, superior organization, a surpassing selection of products, and - what we take most seriously - an uncompromising devotion to quality.
TREATMENT PAGE: Click here
Exterior Wood purchases fine, construction-worthy lumber from sawmills throughout the Northwest, then adds worth to an already worthy product.
Located on 14 acres in Washougal, WA, the Exterior Wood processing facility sits between the Columbia River and the hills to the north. With state-of-the-art electronics located in a series of offices throughout the grounds, we incorporate quality and precision in everything we do - from setting our inventory schedules to determining the right retention levels for our treatment solutions.
We invite you to join us in a virtual tour. On this page, you'll get to know our facility, find out what we do every day, and follow our lumber through the Exterior Wood Treatment Process.
1. The first step in manufacturing a quality finished product is securing the right wood. Exterior Wood purchases only from sawmills that share our own standards for excellence. Our yard is stacked with units of high-quality raw lumber, wrapped in protective paper.
2. A worker removes the paper wrapping from each unit. The bands are cut, and a forklift driver moves the units to the lift hoist, which slowly heaves them upward to begin their journey through the mill.
3. One row at a time, the loose boards fall onto the in-feed chain, where they begin to move through a maze of steps in preparation for pressure treatment. Each piece rushes down this line at high speeds, through the following steps.
4. The "first stop" is the incisor, a series of small knives on rollers, which instantaneously perforates each board on all 4 sides (guaranteeing maximum chemical penetration). Next they're "cedar-toned" with a water/clay based stain to protect and enhance the natural beauty of the wood.
5. A specialist visually inspects each board, quickly noting any defects with a grading mark. By grading our lumber personally, we ensure that every single piece meets the stringent standards which we've committed to uphold, and which our customers rely upon.
6. At this point, the chain-driven line breaks into four sorting trays. Boards that received the grade marks are sorted out, to be later manufactured into a more suitable product based on their grade and appearance. A switch operator sends each piece to the appropriate tray.
7. The next switch operator restacks the lumber into new units strategically sized to meet our customers' needs, and to guarantee thorough pressure treatment. The units are then bound with plastic bands and blocks to allow for ease of handling, and moved from the preparation line to the treatment area. At last, they're staged for the treatment process.
8. Unlike the relative maze mapped by the twists and turns of the in-feed chain, the treatment area (more commonly known as the drip pad) is a spacious section within the same large warehouse. Here, units are loaded onto tram cars and rolled into 1 of 4 giant retorts. This is where pressure treatment takes place.
9. The retort door is shut, and treatment begins inside. Meanwhile, supervisors monitor the process from advanced technological facilities located in an office nearby. Volume, pressure, absorption, and time are strictly measured to ensure that the lumber is fully equipped for its intended application.
The door is shut. A powerful vacuum is created within, sucking the air from the very cell structure of the wood. This step ensures that the lumber will retain its treatment: if air were allowed to remain in the wood, it would be compressed by the enormous pressure applied during treatment. Later, when the retort was reopened the air would expand, pushing the chemical back out of the wood.
Next the retort is flooded with a treatment solution. Based on the type of wood, the number of board feet, and the intended application, the right solution is piped from the tank farm just outside the warehouse, where huge cylinders store various retention levels alongside the concentrate.
The retort is pressurized to 160 pounds, and treatment begins. This can take up to several hours.
Finally the retort is drained and a vacuum is again created to draw any remaining liquid from between rows of boards. These excess fluids are carried back to the tank farm and stored as effluent water. Later, this effluent water is electronically tested to verify its exact retention level, at which point specific amounts of concentrate are added, recycling it into a fresh solution. By reusing every drop of water, we demonstrate a highly efficient, waste-free system.
The door opens, the rail car rolls out, and the units are unloaded to sit on the drip pad. Here the lumber stays until the chemical is fixed to its cell structure: that is, until it's completely dry. In fact, a comprehensive effort is made to prevent any solution from leaving the drip pad. Fans speed the drying process. The forklifts that operate in this area simply don't leave, unless maintenance is needed. Workers rinse their boots as they exit. By containing any excess fluids, we not only protect the safety of our team and our environment, but allow ourselves to collect the runoff. Drains carry the leftover solution back to the effluent water tank to be recycled.
After drying, the units are removed from the drip pad and paper-wrapped by hand. At that point they're moved to the Distribution Center, ready to ship!
We start with standard mill-grade quality lumber, and grade it to Exterior Wood standards.
But regrading is more than sorting. We go on to improve the actual value of the wood in its raw state.
For example, at times we'll find two or three defects in an otherwise good board. Instead of "demoting" the entire piece to a lower-quality status, we send it to our Recovery Area where individual boards are hand-cut to eliminate flaws.
As another example, during our sorting process, boards with an isolated defect are grouped with their flaws aligned on the same end. Later, using our Recovery Area's unit saw, we can trim the entire unit of lumber in a single cut - instantly eliminating the defects. The result is a unit of much higher value.
The unit saw can also be used to maximize the worth of an otherwise acceptable unit. For instance, if 14 footers aren't in as high a demand as 12 footers, we can remove 2 feet and upgrade the relative worth of the lumber.
Through careful analysis and flaw elimination, we raise the raw quality of our lumber before pressure-treatment ever enters the game - offering our customers the quality they need, in all sizes.
The pressure treatment process described on the left is not always appropriate for every piece of lumber we handle. For instance, plywood requires a slightly different process than other pieces. First, like our other lumber, these units are treated in the retorts. Then they're brought to the sticker machine, which separates the plywood sheets (or rows), carefully placing spacers (or kiln sticks) between each. Providing space between rows allows for fast, effective drying. Later, a worker aligns the kiln sticks by hand to prevent the rows from warping, and they're ready to head to the kiln.
Another special case is our Dricon treatment, a fire retardant. Although Dricon is applied inside the same type of retorts shown in the photos on the left, the treatment itself has to be prepared in its own way. Dricon comes in a powder form and is mixed with warm water to the necessary chemical strength. It's then piped across the grounds to the retorts.
The lumber that's treated with Dricon must also be handled differently. After it's finished being treated and the lumber emerges from the retorts, it's then stickered and moved to our fan sheds to begin pre-drying - an energy-saving step. Three sheds stand side by side beyond the warehouse, one wall open for loading, another riddled with fans. After pre-drying, the lumber moves to the dry kiln, a shining silver building that reaches 140 degrees when in use. The main door slides upward on a track, opening an entire wall for loading. Fans circulate the air as it fires, and electronic monitors (placed strategically throughout the charge) ensure proper moisture content.