Housing and You… Incentives to use less popular wood

Sep 07, 2014 News

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By Leonard Gildarie

Investing in a home is the single biggest investment that most families will ever make. For most folks it calls for a combination of finances from both savings and loans.

Over time, I have heard complaints from many who dread the prospect of taking a mortgage, a long-term commitment that should take careful planning. I have, because of personal experiences, spoken of my hardship, my mistakes and lack of experience as a first-time homeowner. It is never easy. My salary as a journalist is not over-the-top. Taking a mortgage virtually left me with little room to maneuver. I admit that it is tough each month.

Herein lies the dilemma. I really wanted a roof of my own…badly. So I overlooked how hard it would be to make those monthly payments, leaving little left back to do anything else. Of course, not many would be so willing to share something so personal.

Many persons go way over their head and want to build their home at one shot. Not a bad idea if you have all the money.  I have always said it and will repeat myself again…if you don’t have a whole lot of money, go simple…be practical. You can always expand. Don’t leave yourself in a bind.

The debate is raging about logging and incentives. I do believe that more can and should be done as far as the local market in Guyana is concerned. We have a huge housing drive that has been helping to boost an economy that is struggling to withstand the falling gold prices and poor showing of sugar. Yet I have not seen any major campaign to increase use of our local products.

For a while now the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) and its partners have been pushing for what is known as the lesser used species of wood (LUS). A booklet has even been prepared called “A Guide to Alternative Lesser Used Species of Tropical Hardwoods in Guyana”.

While the whole intention is to reduce the dependence on prime species like greenheart, purpleheart and other popular woods, I have seen some examples of the possibilities of less popular ones.

GFC should now take it to another level. While the Commission obviously has all the details and would have been experimenting, I think several things can be done to encourage lumber yards and sawmills to have the wood available.

Most contractors, I have found, stuck to what they know, with many of them either unwilling to embrace new ideas of construction or simply not willing to seize the opportunities that arise, and of course will open new horizons.

My contractor was a mere 20 years of age. While he has made some mistakes on my home, I believe he was at the time ahead of the game compared to many. Three years later, he has gotten married and his crew is a matured one with investments made in new pieces of equipment. He is much, much wiser now.

Currently, the choice of building material for a homeowner is very much that…a choice.

The market is wide open and the options are expanding in the face of increasing competition between hardware suppliers.

I see now, much to my chagrin, that importers are bringing in the treated pine wood. It is a shame we are importing. We have so many options here for construction material.

With the cost of building material rising steadily over the years, there is an opportunity to kill two or three birds with one stone. I have seen wood species that are not traditionally used being applied to even walls and flooring.

I propose that the Guyana Forestry Commission facilitate some sort of scheme where sawmillers and lumber yards can benefit from reduced taxes and royalties or other incentives that would encourage the use of the less popular wood.

It would also involve an education campaign that targets loggers, lending institutions, contractors, sawmillers and lumber yards, and the homeowners.

Whatever mechanisms are introduced will have to promote the attractiveness of what we have in Guyana.

According to the GFC handbook on LUS, the various species of wood are ideal for both internal and external uses in construction.

One of the problems that consumers in Guyana have been complaining about is local wood is so expensive. As a matter of fact, the imported pine, used for interior framing, is becoming popular because its prices are almost the same thing as the local wood. How could this be?

Local wood like Burada, ideal for ship keels and crane mats; Dalli- perfect for making cigar boxes and matches; Wadara, Duka, Morabukea and Suya, are all available for uses. Maybe the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment can even get into the act of coming up with some incentives.

Here is an opportunity to come up with some other options. Also, as Guyanese, we should be a little more patriotic. Do your research if you are building. What are the materials available? Do I have to go concrete? In other words, we have to continue to think differently and practically.

Enjoy the weekend and don’t forget to drop those comments [email protected] or call weekdays on 225-8491 or 682-1256.

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