Louisiana Pacific Building Solutions announced last week that it has produced its first SmartSide siding products at its newly expanded Houlton mill in New Limerick. Several building trades union members worked on the new $150 million expansion to convert LP Houlton from the manufacture of oriented strand board and laminated strand lumber to SmartSide siding. The company anticipates it will reach full manufacturing capacity within a year.
“Thanks to hard work of union electricians, laborers, pipe fitters, carpenters, ironworkers and more, the company successfully completed the initial phase of Houlton's conversion to a siding mill, culminating in the pressing of the mill's first siding board in late March," said Jason J. Shedlock, President of the Maine Building and Construction Trades Council and LIUNA regional organizer.
Commissioned in 1981 as an oriented strand board (OSB) mill, LP Houlton is the company's second-longest-running facility.