SIC 2491 Wood Preserving

Contenidos

• NAICS CODE(S).
• FURTHER READING.

SIC 2491

The wood preserving industry is comprised of establishments primarily engaged in treating wood—sawed or planed in other establishments—with creosote or other preservatives to prevent decay and protect against fire and insects. The industry also cuts, treats, and sells poles, posts, and pilings; however, establishments primarily engaged in manufacturing other wood products, which they may also treat with preservatives, are classified elsewhere.

NAICS CODE(S)

321114

Wood Preservation

People have been coating wood with crude preservatives, such as tar and pitch, for ages. Chemicals and processes developed during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, however, have resulted in techniques for preserving wood for 35 years or more. Untreated wood exposed to the elements typically lasts about three years. Perhaps the greatest industry innovation during the 1900s was the high-pressure chemical treatment process, which accelerated wood's absorption of preservatives and increased the treatment's depth. During the 1990s and early 2000s, 95 percent of all preserved wood was treated using this process. Southern yellow pine accounts for 85 percent of all treated wood; the remaining 15 percent includes spruce-pine-fir, hemlock, Douglas fir, cedar, inland species of...