Suggest a butcher block, wood countertop or wood island to a homeowner and those born after 1940 may never have seen one, yet it used to be the cornerstone of the best homes. Today, wood countertops are making a comeback.

In Europe, which typically runs ahead of the U.S. in design trends, wood countertops are very popular. In Scandinavia alone, wood tops have better than 40 percent of the market share compared to the United States, where they hold about 7 percent currently. For kitchen and bath dealers, that figure alone represents a huge opportunity, provided they know the basic selling points of wood countertops.

CHOOSING A WOOD SPECIES

There are a number of wood species to choose from for a kitchen island or butcher block. Domestic and exotic wood species range in color from the palest beige to nearly black and everything in between. You can also choose from a broad range of thicknesses. For example, depending upon the construction style, a single piece of wood can be as thick as 6 in. There are also dozens of construction styles and edge profiles to choose from to complement the design styling of the kitchen.

CHOOSING A FINISH

In addition to wood species, you’ll want to make sure that the countertop is properly finished. Three types of wood finishes are available:

1. Polyurethane finish. Typically, polyurethane is sprayed on and can turn brittle over time. Once the film is damaged by something falling on it or denting it, moisture can get underneath, which can look unsightly. When the finish fails, the moisture lifts the finish off the wood. Some vendors still use variants of this today.

2. Natural oil finishes, such as mineral oil, walnut oil or other natural oils, do not harden or seal the wood, but protect it. When using this finish, homeowners must routinely (every three to four weeks) re-oil their wood top to maintain its functionality and beauty. The benefit of this matte finish is that homeowners can use the entire surface as a chopping block and any scratches can be easily sanded out by the homeowner with a sheet of sandpaper.

3. Penetrating tung oil finish is very durable. It is the finish that was used originally to seal ocean-going ships. Today, it dries fast and flexible, so the finish won’t chip or break off around the corners. Because it penetrates into the wood, moisture can’t get underneath the surface, which prevents water rings. It is highly durable, resists most household chemicals and is highly moisture-resistant. This mid-gloss satin finish is typically chosen by the homeowners who use a separate cutting board and do not use sharp objects on the countertop without surface protection.

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RISMEDIA, January 18, 2011—Housing will see gradual improvements in activity this year as the nation’s economy and job market continue to move to higher ground, establishing momentum that will produce more considerable gains in 2012, according to economists who appeared at the NAHB International Builders’ Show in Orlando on January 12.

“This year’s spring selling season will be better than last year’s,” said NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe, with job growth providing a stronger stimulus in the housing market than last year’s tax credits for home buyers.

Crowe forecasted 575,000 single-family home starts in 2011, a 21% climb over an estimated 475,000 units started in 2010, which in turn showed a 7% gain from the 442,000 homes started in 2009.

Multifamily, which is poised to profit from a disproportionate number of Gen Y members moving into the housing market, has seen the bottom of the cycle, he said, and will see its starts rise 16% this year to 133,000 units, with a further 53% increase in 2012 to 203,000 units.

Builders’ access to the credit they need to start new homes remains the fragile component of the NAHB forecast, Crowe said. So far, small builders have experienced extreme difficulty in obtaining financing, and rectifying the situation as soon as possible is the top priority of the association.

More encouraging is a rebound in the confidence of consumers, who mid-2010 “froze in place, faced with a lot of uncertainty,” he said. A recent pickup in durable purchases for such items as automobiles and furniture indicates that consumers are less afraid today of losing jobs and income.

The U.S. economy will receive a boost from the massive tax package enacted at the end of last year, he said, including more income going into the pockets of wage earners thanks to a one-year 2% reduction in Social Security taxes. This will contribute to the gross domestic product strengthening from the 2.5% range to 3.5% to 3.8% by year’s end.

New-home sales, Crowe projected, “will struggle” but begin following employment gains, reaching 405,000 for the year, up from an estimate of about 320,000 for 2010.

The housing recovery will start up slowly this year, he said, because it will be driven by the relatively low housing production Plains states, with Texas the most powerful of the bunch. Traditional bulwarks of housing activity such as California and Florida, on the other hand, will not be among the states whose housing markets recover the fastest.

In addition to stimulative fiscal and monetary policy, Freddie Mac Chief Economist Frank Nothaft said that housing affordability and demographic trends will help support growing housing demand.

Citing research from the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, Nothaft said that households should be growing at an average annual rate of 1.2 million to 1.5 million over the next five to 10 years, suggesting the need for a sharp increase in housing production; half of the 500,000 to 600,000 starts of the past two years were needed just to replace the number of homes being removed from the housing stock.

While there will continue to be supply overhangs in some important large markets, by and large the housing price slump should bottom out by the middle of this year, he said, and price increases are already occurring in some local areas. That should attract prospective buyers who have been procrastinating until they see prices hit bottom.

“Potential buyers who have resources to buy but want to buy at the bottom are likely to start coming into the market in the springtime,” he said, which for fence sitters will be “the time to come into the market.”

Fixed-rate mortgages will move up from their current 4.75% to the 5.75% range by the end of this year, he forecasted. This will push total single-family mortgage originations down about 30% below the 2010 level as refinancings fall sharply in the face of rising mortgage rates.

While a 20% increase in housing production in 2011 is good news for housing, to put things in perspective, Nothaft said that this gain is from an extremely low level, with single-family production declining about 80% from peak to trough.

For more information, visit www.nahb.org.