Bob joined Louisiana-Pacific rep Dave Probst and the crew of Habitat volunteers from Goldman Sachs for another look at Louisiana-Pacific's SmartSystem family of engineered wood products. Today the volunteers were putting up the SmartLap, an engineered siding with the look of traditional clapboards.
As Probst explained, "We've taken aspen wafers, which as they fall to the mat in the manufacturing process are oriented perpendicular to each other in up to five layers, and treated them with our SmartGuard process, a zinc borate, to make them resistant to fungal decay and insects, and then bound them in a very strong MDI rubinate adhesive to create a finished product that is actually stronger and more rigid than hardboard siding.
"Next a resin saturated paper overlay - an MDO finish - is bonded to the substrate giving it a protective skin or membrane to resist against moisture or water. The panel surface is then embossed to give it a nice cedar texture and finally primed. To enhance durability, each SmartLap panel receives three coats of edge sealer as well."
For the Yonkers project volunteer carpenters utilized a top or blind nail installation. The nails attaching each eight inch deep panel were applied about 3/4" down from the top of the board. Then each subsequent course was brought down a full inch so that, when complete, none of the fasteners would show making for a clean, attractive siding application.
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