TimberSIL in Trouble

In bringing its treated wood product, TimberSIL™, to market, Timber Treatment Technologies, Inc. (TTT) of Virginia has faced obstacles both from the conventional chemical treatment industry and from the government agencies that regulate treated wood (see EBN, Vol. 15, No. 8). TTT has shrugged off those hurdles as nothing more than sour grapes about TimberSIL’s innovative, nontoxic process using sodium silicate, but new problems—from the company’s own business partners and even from within the company—may be harder for the company to survive.

Northern Crossarm Company, Inc., of Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, which has been under contract with TTT as the major manufacturer of TimberSIL, has filed two lawsuits against TTT alleging problems with the treatment process and breach of contract in TTT’s failure to pay for treated wood. And according to TTT President Troy Caver, Huttig Building Products, Inc., which had been the exclusive distributor of TimberSIL, has ended its contract with TTT. (Caver’s own presence at the company since August 2006 is a result of an internal shakeup involving a previous officer’s alleged wrongdoing that may have weakened the company financially.)