Faulty Lumber Found In Retirement Units

Falsely labeled lumber from a British Columbia wholesaler has been found at a partially finished North Seattle retirement complex where more than 100 residents already have moved in.

A Koll Construction Co. manager for the 250-unit Ida Culver House at Broadview, at North 125th Street and Greenwood Avenue North, said yesterday he had found numerous 2-by-4 studs bearing the same ``MacDonald Inspection'' symbol found on mislabeled, lower-grade boards at numerous other construction sites.

He said there was no indication the suspect lumber was used in Ida Culver buildings already built and occupied.

The discovery came as local building officials were trying to determine how much B.C. lumber with bogus grades is in the Puget Sound area, how long it has been supplied to builders and whether any was used in buildings that have been finished and occupied.

Builders and inspectors say the mislabeled lumber originated with B.B.M. Lakeview Wholesale Lumber Ltd. of Surrey, B.C. At some point, the original grade stamps were sanded off the lumber and replaced with labels indicating higher quality wood, officials say.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police say they are investigating how the lumber came to be falsely labeled, but otherwise won't comment.

B.B.M. Lakeview paid a $100,000 fine in a B.C. court in 1988 after pleading guilty of fraud in delivering mislabeled lumber to Canadian builders.

At the Ida Culver House at Broadview, discovery of suspect boards was limited to the upper floor of one unoccupied apartment building and two unoccupied single-family residences that are part of the complex, said the construction manager, who asked not to be identified.

Koll Construction could not be certain the boards were marked with bogus stamps until a lumber-grading expert's inspection later today.

But the construction manager and Seattle building officials said the boards, marked hemlock or fir - strong, structural grades - actually appear to be a weaker species, perhaps spruce.

``We think we have bogus lumber, but the extent of it is unknown,'' the manager said.

``To the best of my knowledge, we don't have any in occupied buildings. But we can't be 100 percent certain.''

The manager said about 20 percent of the lumber still waiting to be used at the Ida Culver site bore the MacDonald Inspection label.

No occupied apartments have been dismantled to inspect for low-grade lumber. The manager said Koll will continue to examine delivery records to determine if any falsely labeled lumber arrived while two now-occupied buildings were being put up.

Koll purchased the lumber from Uresco Construction Materials, a local wholesaler that arranged for delivery directly to the site from B.B.M. Lakeview, he said.

City building inspectors examined the unfinished Ida Culver structures in Broadview yesterday.

``They (Koll managers) are being very responsible about the site,'' said Jack Weller, the city's chief building inspector. The city will monitor the contractor's progress but has no plans to order evacuation of the two completed buildings, he said.

Tenants of the two buildings - three- and four-story structures that opened Nov. 1 - were not immediately notified, said Jack Paauw, a spokesman for Broadview Development Associates II, which owns the complex.

``We don't feel there's any warrant in advising anybody, because we don't see it as a problem,'' he said. ``We're business-as-usual.''

The complex, a ``congregate-care'' facility with five apartment buildings, a nursing station and eight single-family homes, will house about 350 people when completed. Construction began 18 months ago.

Even if suspect lumber is determined to be in occupied areas, residents would be in no immediate danger, the construction manager said.

Thus far, boards believed to be bearing bogus grade marks have been non-weight-bearing wall studs, not floor or roof joists that support the building's weight, he said. Koll Construction is certain all structural joists came from local lumber mills, he said.

Two building experts contacted yesterday had different opinions on whether the use of misgraded lumber in a building could be hazardous.

``Most of the concern is just deflection (sagging),'' said Barry Onouye, a University of Washington architecture professor. ``Deflection doesn't mean it's going to fall down. It just might sag a little.''

Edwin Baker, an independent structural engineer based in Lynnwood, noted that wood could break if used in unsuitable ways. Baker said architects specifically designate the size and quality of lumber to be used for specific purposes.

``If you have wood that's overstressed for the job it's being used for, it can be hazardous,'' he said. ``It isn't safe. No structural engineer is going to put his stamp of approval on a project that used lower-quality wood than was required. The liability is too great.''

Stamps applied to lumber at sawmills classify boards according to their grade or ability to bear weight.

Grade marks on some boards delivered by B.B.M. at some time were sanded off and restamped, King County officials say. Suspect grade labels carried the mill designation 62 or 69. But not all lumber bearing those marks was found to be a lower grade.

The bogus grade marks have identified softer, weaker wood, - such as spruce - as stronger species typically used as structural supports.

In other cases, knotty wood deserving a low No. 3 grade has been mismarked as grade No. 2, which is suitable for structural use.

Most of the suspect lumber has turned up in the greater Seattle area, mainly at big construction sites. Builders say the bad wood seems to be limited to shipments typically purchased by large-scale apartment developers.

As in the case of the Ida Culver project, however, some of the lumber has found its way into single-family construction. And a small amount of the lumber is believed to have entered the Seattle-area retail market.

Pierce County building inspectors said a check of 300 construction projects there turned up no evidence of the phony grade marks. Officials in Snohomish County said they had discovered the lumber at three construction sites.

In King County, inspections continued today at more than 60 buildings at 30 construction sites. Some of those projects remain on hold while inspectors from the American Lumber Standards Committee examine and regrade lumber, sending any suspect boards back to B.B.M. Lakewood.

Once regrading is complete, a design engineer determines what action to take, said Mike Dykeman, a commercial inspections supervisor for the county Building and Land Development Division.

Not all lower-grade wood needs to be removed. Contractors in many cases have chosen to reinforce it with certified lumber. Other builders have been forced to replace as much as 80 percent of floor supports.

Officials believe B.B.M. Lakeview was the source in recent months of what they estimate was several million board feet of lumber that wound up in the Northwest bearing bogus grade stamps.

All of the lumber bears the grade mark of MacDonald Inspection Services, a Coquitlam, B.C., lumber-grading company that authorizes numerous B.C. mills to use its stamp.

Officials said the matter came to light after a B.B.M. competitor complained that B.B.M. was selling lumber at unusually low prices.

Structure-grade lumber sells for as much as five times the price of lower-grade lumber, wholesalers say.

MacDonald officials investigated, found bogus grade marks and last week alerted building inspectors throughout the Northwest.

It's unclear whether the alterations were done at B.B.M., at a lumber mill supplying B.B.M, or somewhere else, a MacDonald spokesman said.

Dykeman said King County officials are confident they've discovered all the lower-grade lumber in buildings still under construction.

But he acknowledged inspectors have no way of knowing how long lower-grade B.B.M. lumber has been in this area or whether any boards with bogus grades are sealed inside occupied structures.

Lower-grade lumber discovered here so far has been traced to B.B.M. shipments as far back as August. ``But that doesn't guarantee it wasn't shipped down here before August,'' Dykeman said.

Other builders said B.B.M. had been shipping lumber to the area since at least earlier this year.

``We don't know how far back this problem goes,'' said a MacDonald Inspection official.

Several current safeguards should protect against grade-mark fraud, building industry officials say. MacDonald Inspection Services is a subsidiary of Warnock Hersey Professional Services, a multi-national testing agency with a reputation akin to the U.S. Underwriters Laboratories.

MacDonald Inspections adheres to standards jointly formulated by U.S. and Canadian lumber-standards organizations, which oversee about 20 U.S. and Canadian grading companies.

Grading companies are expected to routinely inspect mills authorized to use their stamp, ensuring wood is graded properly.

The Koll construction manager said workers don't have the time or expertise to catch lumber bearing a phony grade. Spruce studs marked as hemlock or fir, for example, are difficult to detect.

``I looked at some of the boards,'' he said, ``and for the most part they look OK. They're not full of knots. You have to go by the grading stamp. You come to rely on it.''

Building inspectors say contractors are not to blame for the lower-grade lumber and have been cooperating fully to reinforce or replace suspect boards.

-- Times business reporter Tim Healy contributed to this report.