It didn't do much to help the Three Little Pigs, but straw is the secret ingredient in Masonite's new Safe 'N Sound interior doors.
The core of these composite doors is made of agricultural wheat straw bound with a formaldehyde-free synthetic resin. The doors are the company's first foray into "green" building products.
Marketed as having the heft and feel or solid wood doors, the wheat-core doors have advantages of light weight and sound deadening qualities.
Available in passage and bifold configurations, the molded panel doors cost about 25 percent more than Masonite's standard interior doors.
Door faces are made with by-product wood chips and come primed and ready for painting.