Virtual Wood

Cedar Creek Wholesale lumber provider in Springfield is somewhat of the good Samaritan of the lumber industry these days. Not exactly for unmotivated reasons, but the company, which only sells to lumber yards such as Meek's, Lowe's, Herman's and Springfield Millworks, recently put $30,000 into developing a virtual home surfacing tool on its website, cedarcreeksgf.com.

The virtual surfacing tool allows those who are building or remodeling homes to see what seven kinds of wood sidings look like on four different home exteriors and one commercial exterior. The folks at Cedar Creek began building the tool in September 2005, and eventually they also plan to have 12 kinds of wood products to be seen in home interiors and will include "snap-on" items such as timber tresses and other wood accessories for both the inside and the outside of the home.  At press time, not all features were available yet.

Although Cedar Creek doesn't directly supply the materials to the consumers for which the virtual home tool was made, Cedar Creek is banking on items such as this to raise awareness of the products in the wood industry and eventually help grow Cedar Creek's  business.

Todd Ball, one of three owners of Cedar Creek, says that most people don't know the many options there are when it comes to adding wood products to their home or using them in building their new homes. Samples don't always do justice to the product, and the virtual home allows homeowners to see the look of the product on a large scale. A code of numbers and letters accompanies each of the samples shown on the sight. Consumers can take these numbers to their lumber yard to get exact products. Ball and SalesTek marketing consultant Rodney Noran collaborated from the concept of the virtual home all the way through its fruition. Cedar Creek is also developing a model home to help further promote the interior options. The model home is anticipated to be finished by the end of the year.