A Sustainable Alternative to Wood
An innovative building material from Modern Mill utilizes rice hulls as a key ingredient.
Modern builders are constantly looking for sustainable, ecofriendly, and durable choices when it comes to building materials, particularly when it comes to home parts that have traditionally been made of wood. But the appearance of real wood is often unmatched when it comes to implementing a wood alternative. A new product has recently emerged from a Fernwood, Miss., manufacturer that meets all of these characteristics while integrating a unique ingredient into its tree-free “wood”: upcycled rice hulls.
ACRE by Modern Mill, which can be used as the material for siding, trim, decking, and more, is designed to bring the look and feel of real wood, while also being phenol-, formaldehyde-, and adhesive-free. Modern Mill mentions on its website that no special tools are required to work with ACRE, and that the product features a uniform texture and finish-ready edge throughout that allows you to cover it in oil, stain, lacquer, or paint. ACRE resists expansion and contraction and will not crack, splinter, swell, or rot, according to the manufacturer’s website. Additionally, unlike real wood, applying heat allows you to curve and mold the flexible material into different shapes and variations
Standard sheets of ACRE are typically 4 ft. wide with lengths that range from 8 ft. to 20 ft., and come with the option to have it sanded on both sides or embossed on one side. Thicknesses also come in variations of ¼ in., 3/8 in., 5/8 in., ¾ in., and 1 in. You can learn more about ACRE and order samples at modern-mill.com.
Photos courtesy of the manufacturer.
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View Comments
Where are Taunton's editors hiding?
"Standard sheets of ACRE are typically 4 in. wide..."
Not according to the manufacturer's website....
Lengths are listed as 8 to 20 inches? Surely that means feet...
Probably safe to assume that Taunton released their editors & publishes whatever poorly-written crap they can find that fills their hard-drives & peddles ads
This is a PVC composite dressed up to look eco friendly.
Wood is so much more sustainable than this.