Profile: Olstedt Construction, Seaside, Ore.

Situated on the picturesque Oregon Coast, Seaside is a community insulated between the Pacific Ocean and the Cascade foothills. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been insulated from the housing downturn. Olstedt Construction has felt the blow like many builders around the country, but has found itself able to adapt and remain successful.

The builder’s diverse housing stock—which includes custom waterfront homes along with affordable attached housing farther inland—has certainly helped. But perhaps more telling is what Olstedt hasn’t changed: The company remains true to its core value of quality. While a lot of builders moved to cheaper materials, Olstedt has stayed with most of the products it has trusted for years.

“We have not tried to build a cheaper house. [To save cost] we try to be more efficient and work closer with our suppliers,” says president Steve Olstedt. “You don’t make money when you have to go back and fix things. We do it right the first time.”

That attitude is key in Olstedt’s market, which is notoriously wet and can see winds as high as 80 to 90 mph. Along with quality products, the company only entrusts projects to contractors familiar with the conditions and how to operate, store materials, and build to the climate.

 

After three days of torrential rain, the pointSIX Durastrand Flooring was flooded with 1½ inches of standing water. After it was dried, there was no evidence of swelling. 

Ainsworth’s pointSIX Durastrand Flooring has become a component of Olstedt’s quality-control arsenal. The product’s tapered-edge technology offsets the effects of moisture, eliminating the need for sanding that can add time and money to jobs, particularly in extreme climates such as Seaside’s.

Olstedt switched to new pointSIX while building a 1,850-squarefoot custom home along with a detached 1,200-square-foot workshop on an ocean-view lot in Seaside. Immediately after installation, the site was inundated with three days of heavy rains. “We found 1 1/2 inches of standing water covering the Ainsworth subfloor. It was like a swimming pool,” recalls Randy Strickland, construction manager.

Normally, using traditional OSB subfloor products, water exposure at that level would result in swelling of the panel edges, he says; however, that wasn’t the case with the pointSIX Durastrand Flooring.

“After removing the water and drying the subfloor, we found absolutely no evidence of swelling,” Strickland says. “We were able to install hardwood flooring right over the top without any problems at all. PointSIX clearly performs very well in wet conditions.”

A year later, Olstedt continues to use pointSIX Flooring, one of the many products helping the builder ensure a quality job for every job.

To learn more about how Olstedt Construction builds success, check out the video case study “Three Things I’ve Learned: Tips from Seasoned Pros,” at http://pointsixexperts.com/steve.