Building Materials

After bursting onto the scene in 2010, US LBM quickly won honors as “one of the fastest-growing companies” in the building materials universe. More than five years later, it still holds that distinction.

In a report entitled "Commercial Construction Markets are Helping to Repair U.S. Building Materials,” Standard & Poor's Ratings Services has posited that commercial construction and the slowed rate of spending decline for that sector has helped the overall credit availability for construction projects. 

Standard & Poor's economists are projecting a 14% increase in residential housing in 2011 over 2010, and spending on repairs and remodeling possibly increasing about 5%.

US LBM Holdings has acquired H & H Lumber Co. of Superior, Wis., which will become part of the Lyman Lumber Co. 

H&H serves the northern Wisconsin and greater Duluth, Minn., markets, providing home builders, specialty contractors and professional remodelers with a full-suite of building materials and services. The company joins Lyman Lumber Co., a US LBM division that is one of the largest building material suppliers in Minnesota and Wisconsin. 

Channel analysis
Dollar sales and unit sales of the caulk and sealant category both showed year-over-year gains, according to consumer research from the Port Washington, N.Y.-based NPD Group. But unit volume is down compared with two years ago. The warehouse home centers dominated — nearly three of every five tubes of caulk — but have trended down in the past 12 months.

Maumee, Ohio-based Fypon introduced a new “Stone & Timber” collection of decorative products created to accent homes featuring stone, stucco and timber as major design themes. The Stone & Timber product line offers either a stone or woodgrain texture on exposed surfaces.