All our segments set records for sales and EBITDA in the second quarter, with over 150,000 housing starts in June, single-family mix over 70% and repair and remodel indices equally robust, we are encouraged that demand for LP's products remain very strong.
EBITDA was $684 million, generating $457 million in operating cash flow and $4.74 in earnings per share.
Revenue for Siding Solutions grew by 39% compared to last year.
This is composed of 27% volume growth, compounded by 9% price growth.
In addition to market penetration and share gains, Siding is growing through product innovation, the most innovative and value-added subset of Siding Solutions, which includes SmartSide Smooth, Shakes and ExpertFinish and LP's new builder series Siding, combined for 9% of total volume in Q2.
This is compared to 6% last year and these new products contributed more than one point to the 9% increase.
Siding Solutions revenue grew by 39% and OSB and EWP prices were significantly higher in both North and South America.
And Entekra delivered a record 324 units for $22 million of revenue, a tenfold increase over last year.
As a result, LP generated $1.3 billion in sales, $684 million of EBITDA, $457 million of operating cash flow, and $4.74 in adjusted earnings per share.
Inflationary pressures in wages, raw materials and freight, especially when compared to softer prices last year produced an EBITDA headwind of $24 million.
Maintenance and other spending account for the remaining adverse $31 million.
The waterfalls on slides nine and 10 show year-over-year revenue and EBITDA comparisons for the Siding and OSB segments.
Siding Solutions saw volume growth of 27% and price growth of 9% for revenue growth of 39%.
This generated an additional $81 million of revenue and $53 million of EBITDA and incremental EBITDA margin of 65%.
Notably the 9% price increase in the quarter includes four percentage points from annual list price increases and three points on the packet that is from reduced discounts and rebates.
The highest value-added subset of products, which includes ExpertFinish Smooth Shakes and Builder series punches well above its weight in terms of price accounting for just 9% of total volume, but over 100 basis points of the year-over-year price increase.
The $4 million increase in selling and marketing costs represents the ongoing return to pre-COVID levels of spend consistent with our growth strategy and reflects the anniversary of reductions made last spring.
With OEE flat to prior year still impressive 88%, the total Siding transformation impact is $81 million in revenue and $50 million in EBITDA.
Costs associated with the Houlton conversion are making their first appearance in this waterfall with $1 million incurred in the second quarter.
We have the last vestiges of the discontinued fiber sales this quarter with $10 million less revenue, but only $1 million less EBITDA.
This brings us to second quarter revenue for the segment of $291 million an increase of 32% and EBITDA of $77 million, an increase of 51% for an EBITDA margin for the segment of 27%.
Slide 10 shows the quarter in more detail for OSB and is obviously not to scale as OSB price increases dwarfed the other elements of the waterfall adding $554 million in year-over-year revenue and EBITDA.
Volume was up about 8%, driven by Structural Solutions growth.
High unscheduled downtime reduced OEE to 86% which contributed to the $18 million of unfavorable production costs.
And lastly the restart of Peace Valley cost us $7 million in the quarter.
The net result of these factors dominated as I said by price are increases in sales and EBITDA of $574 million and $519 million respectively and yet another quarter of extraordinary cash flow generation.
All of which is reflected in the Siding and OSB waterfall charts to the tune of $8 million for raw materials and $12 million for freight across the two segments.
On a blended unit cost basis, non-wood raw materials were down about 6% in 2020 compared to 2019, but are now up about 13% in 2021 compared to 2020.
This represents an inflationary CAGR or compound annual growth rate of about 4% over the period.
Let me turn to LP's capital allocation strategy which remains to return to shareholders over time at least 50% of cash flow from operations in excess of investments required to sustain our core businesses and grow Siding Solutions at OSB Structural Solutions.
In the second quarter of 2021, we returned $481 million to shareholders through a combination of $465 million in share repurchases and $16 million in dividends.
Furthermore, since the end of June, we've spent an additional $140 million on buybacks which leaves $572 million remaining under the current $1 billion authorization.
And since LP embarked on its strategic transformation, we've returned over $1.8 billion to shareholders, repurchasing more than 5 million shares and bringing the current share count to a bit under 95 million.
In order to consistently reflect ongoing Siding growth and the decrease in share count driven by aggressive share repurchases, LP has declared a midyear increase in the quarterly dividend of 13% or $0.02 per share raising it from $0.16 a share to $0.18 per share.
We now anticipate spending $95 million in 2021 for the Houlton conversion an increase of $10 million of prior guidance largely due to increased costs for steel and labor.
Spending for other growth capital, is expected to be $45 million and we anticipate spending about $120 million on sustaining maintenance for full-year total capital outlay of $270 million.
For Siding Solutions, the third quarter should see year-over-year revenue growth of around 10%, which would be another quarterly record despite the much stronger comparative.
And if we assume 10% year-over-year revenue growth for the second half of this year Siding Solutions revenue growth will hit 24% for the year, which is double our long-term guidance.
But on a trailing 12-month basis, we still expect the EBITDA margin to meet our long-term guidance of 25%.
We're therefore guiding to OSB revenue being roughly 10% sequentially lower than the second quarter.
And so with further caveats about certain changes in demand raw material price and availability or other unforeseeable events, we expect EBITDA for the third quarter to be at least $530 million, which will not be another quarterly record for LP but will be second only to the quarter we've just finished to report it.

Summary:
EBITDA was $684 million, generating $457 million in operating cash flow and $4.74 in earnings per share.
As a result, LP generated $1.3 billion in sales, $684 million of EBITDA, $457 million of operating cash flow, and $4.74 in adjusted earnings per share.
The waterfalls on slides nine and 10 show year-over-year revenue and EBITDA comparisons for the Siding and OSB segments.
We have the last vestiges of the discontinued fiber sales this quarter with $10 million less revenue, but only $1 million less EBITDA.
We now anticipate spending $95 million in 2021 for the Houlton conversion an increase of $10 million of prior guidance largely due to increased costs for steel and labor.
Spending for other growth capital, is expected to be $45 million and we anticipate spending about $120 million on sustaining maintenance for full-year total capital outlay of $270 million.
For Siding Solutions, the third quarter should see year-over-year revenue growth of around 10%, which would be another quarterly record despite the much stronger comparative.
And if we assume 10% year-over-year revenue growth for the second half of this year Siding Solutions revenue growth will hit 24% for the year, which is double our long-term guidance.
We're therefore guiding to OSB revenue being roughly 10% sequentially lower than the second quarter.
And so with further caveats about certain changes in demand raw material price and availability or other unforeseeable events, we expect EBITDA for the third quarter to be at least $530 million, which will not be another quarterly record for LP but will be second only to the quarter we've just finished to report it.