I got a right telling off last week from no less a figure than Wood Panel Industries Federation boss Alastair Kerr. My heinous error? To not call OSB an engineered wood product. I’d been referring in my members’ enews to what I’d seen at Interbuild – lots of German engineered wood products but nothing from the UK.
“What about the JOSB Done stand, it was packed with people wanting to know about a great British product,” Alastair retorted.
And it indeed it was. As I have said on many occasions, JOSB Done is perhaps the best marketing campaign I’ve seen in my time in the industry. OSB is an excellent product; always, when I’ve have seen it, clearly marked with the appropriate CE designation. And nearly all OSB is certified, a fact the TTF points out when people say supplies of certified products are limited, or to others who say why bother? OSB manufacturers have bothered and are reaping the rewards.
But is OSB an engineered wood product? Although engineering has clearly gone into it, I’ve always thought of it as a ‘panel product’, in the same category as MDF or plywood. I think of engineered wood products as glulam beams and I-joists.
You may think this is semantics. But getting the language right can make a huge difference to the way products, people and industries are perceived. I don’t know what we should call OSB and would be interested to know people’s views. But I suspect outside the industry engineered OSB could just as easily mean engineered Orange Seed Boxes.
This industry abounds with language, standards and grading that confuse customers rather than describing what is being bought. It is alright for the cognoscenti but if you asked a sample of customers whether they appreciated the BB/CC face or the TR26 or C16 products supplied in accordance with EN 14286, they would simply say what the MDF are you talking about!
If we want to help specifiers and customers use wood and wood products we could start by simplifying our language.
Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.
