Laminate flooring and panel producer Kronospan has entered the U.S. flooring market, acquiring Clarion Boards Inc. and Clarion Laminates LLC. The Shippenville, PA-based Clarion Industries says it is the only fully integrated laminate flooring operation in North America. Based in Austria, Kronospan operates an MDF mill in Alabama.

Home improvement professionals have long understood, and used as a selling point, the positive impact remodeling projects have on a home's resale value, but the 2015 Remodeling Impact Report from the National Association of Realtors (NAR), suggests renovation projects also provide a more intrinsic value for homeowners who choose to stay in their homes: Joy.

Horner Millwork will invest $7 million to expand its Somerset, MA, manufacturing plant by 20,000-square-feet, adding two new CNCs and a solar plant facility and creating 15 new jobs.

Online furnishings retailer Wayfair says it offers "a zillion things" for the home. What the e-commerce firm doesn't tell you is that some of those items contained high levels of formaldehyde. Nine out of 10 furniture and flooring items submitted to HPVA Laboratories for formaldehyde emissions testing failed to comply with CARB II regulations.

JW Millwork, which sells domestic and imported moulding products, was acquired by Cedar Creek, a wholesale buildings materials distributor.

Optimized for iPad Pro with Apple Pencil support, a new function in the Houzz app makes it easier to communicate through images and to add products from the Houzz Marketplace to any photo.

Biewer Lumber, a producer of lumber products for building construction and secondary wood manufacturing, will invest $85 million to open a new plant in Newton, MS, creating approximately 125 jobs.

A proposal is underway by the Forest Stewardship Council to revise the trademark requirements and make easier the labeling and promotion by FSC certificate holders. The deadline for public comments on the draft standard is Jan. 31, 2016.

Citing improving markets for rotary hardwood veneer in North America, Gary Gillespie, vice president of Columbia Forest Products’ Northern Operations, announced this week that Columbia is in the intermediate stages of preparing for a reopening the company's plant in Rutherglen, Ontario.

Roseburg Forest Products will combine the manufacturing and sales functions for its solid wood and composite panel lines as part of its reorganization efforts for 2016. Other areas of the company will remain as currently structured, said incoming President Grady Mulbery. The company also announced a number of promotions.