What is BluWood and Should You Use it in Your Home

Whether you’re building your dream home, or just finishing off your basement for added living area, you may wish to think about using a relatively new product called BluWood.  You may have noticed those odd blue studs at your local big box store and wondered (like I did a few years back) just what the heck are those used for?

The History of BluWood

BluWood, developed by BluWood USA in New York in 2000, was developed to offer a new level of defense for wood framing components against the costly, damaging effects of mold, fungus and termites. All of which are extremely harmful to your homes structural wood shell and also to your health! It’s essentially a two part system in which a protective “film” acting as a vapor barrier is applied to the wood, as well as a DOT preservative containing an insecticidal and fungicidal.  The first part limits moisture absorption, blocking the growth of fungi and mold.  It also limits warping and splitting of the lumber. The second application provides effective fungus and termite prevention. Bluwood is available in all framing lumber, trusses and roof/wall sheathing.

Is Bluwood Pressure treated?

You may be thinking, sounds a lot like pressure treated lumber? It is important to note that Bluwood is not just pressure-treated lumber stained a different colour. The pressure-treated process adds water to the wood, as well as utilizes Aluminum Copper Quaternary (ACQ) to deter insect damage and is not approved for interior applications in most cases. Bluwood is rated “Green” from the LEED (leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), has low VOC’s (Volatile Organic Compounds) and is approved for interior wood framing applications. As for the overall safety of using Bluwood to build your home, there are some studies that show that extreme doses of directly injected Chlorothanlonil (CTL), a fungicide in Bluwood, are considered by the EPA as a possible carcinogen in laboratory rodents. As always, do your own investigation and educate yourself before selecting any product.

So, how much? On average, using Bluwood products will add approximately 20% to the lumber cost for the project.  There will be significant savings, however, in damaged lumber, not only with future termite infestation, but also reduced cull lumber destroyed by wet conditions during the construction process. But most important, of course, are the obvious health benefits of using a mold-preventing product such as Bluwood in your home. If you have questions, like what is Bluwood and should you use it in your build, contact Alair Homes in Barrie! We want to hear from you and to help you. We’ve been building custom homes and doing renovations for many years and we have experience working with a wide variety of products, so let us help you with your next project.