Wood liquidators often like to tout their low prices and vast selection of hardwoods. However, the process through which they obtain and treat their lumber is something that they don’t like to talk about.

Hardwood flooring and other lumber that comes from liquidators often tends to have problems after it’s installed. These liquidation companies purchase their chemically treated lumber from China directly or they buy wood from outside the U.S., then ship it all the way to China for it to be processed with toxic glues and other chemicals. The concern here is that some of these Chinese flooring and lumber which have been infused with chemicals such as Formaldehyde will mirror the recent uproar over Chinese drywall.

Hopefully, you can see how this could be a problem for unsuspecting homeowners. VOC (Volatile organic compounds) emissions are the major culprit for many Chinese lumber issues. This cheap lumber tends to “outgas” which is basically the emission of chemical vapors. These vapors have been given national attention and many people are now paying attention to how their products are treated and where they come from. People who recently built a home that used this chemically infused wallboard had many issues from major appliance malfunction to health related issues such as respiratory infections.

So, if you’re shopping for the best wood, what can you do?

Buy wood from direct importers that don’t use VOCs to treat their flooring.  At Advantage, every species of hardwood flooring that we sell is not treated with any VOCs. From Brazilian Walnut to White Oak, every wood flooring species is treated in our North Carolina plant with VOC free chemicals. The VOC free flooring we produce won’t outgas or cause the air you breathe to be contaminated.

Ipe decking goes under many names. It’s not surprising to see people confuse ipe with other names like Brazilian Walnut, Pau D’Arco, Ipe Tabaco, Yellow Poui, Bethabara, Pau Lope ®, and Ironwood ®.

Regardless of the name, a deck made of this exotic hardwood is going to last you a lifetime. If you want to know why, all you have to do is check out the many detailed stories and deck designs that are featured in this blog.

For the past 17 years, Advantage Trim & Lumber has been committed to providing deck builders and DIY homeowners decking options that are second to none.

Oh, and our prices are the best in the market, too! We also ship to all corners of the world and every person on our staff can help you answer all of your ipe decking questions.

So, if you or anyone you know is planning to build a deck, patio, or covered porch, check us out and we’ll be honored to help.

Ipe (pronounced EE-pay) is an exotic hardwood that is used for decking, flooring, and a host of many other applications. Ipe has many names and is also known as Brazilian Walnut, Amapa, Cortez, Guayacan polvillo, and many others. Ipe also gets misspelled in various different ways such as epi, epay, and eepay. Regardless of the name (or the spelling), ipe is gaining greater recognition and notoriety over other famous hardwoods such as teak. One of the main reasons why ipe decking has such a good reputation is because of its density. Ipe is so dense that a single piece of it will actually sink in water. So, while ipe may not be the best wood to use on a yacht, it certainly is perfect for a deck.

One test that is utilized to measure the hardness of woods like ipe and teak is the Janka Hardness Scale. This test measures the force required to push a small steel ball into the wood about halfway. In fact, when tested with the Janka Hardness Scale, ipe was proven to be three times as strong as teak. more…

Ipe (Brazilian Walnut) is one of the most dense hardwood materials available today, it is so dense that it actually sinks when placed in water. This makes Ipe the absolute best choice for your outdoor projects like decking and patio furniture.

Because Ipe is so dense and hard it’s naturally resistant to mold, mildew and termites. It also does not contain any knots and does not splinter which makes it an excellent surface to walk on. All these excellent features make ipe decking the only decking material that can last 40 years or more with no maintenance, no pressure washing, and no chemicals applied to the ipe.