Sustainable Wood Material Options for Domestic Building and Design

Timber is among the most tried-and-trusted of building materials. Before humankind had worked out how to fire bricks, it was creating shelter out of wooden beams. And timber is still widely used today, both in structural elements and decorative ones.

How to Work with Timber

Working with timber effectively requires a number of tools. These include saws, drills, drivers and sanders, which variously allow you to shape the material and attach it to other pieces of timber. The amount you invest in tools will depend on your precise needs. For example, an impact driver makes a worthwhile investment if you’re driving a lot of screws, while a mechanical saw is great if you’re having to cut to a given length, and you’d prefer to give your arms a rest.

Why Timber?

Timber comes in many different forms, many of which share advantages that make them fantastic for construction.

To begin with, wood does not conduct heat. While a steel beam will reliably transmit warmth from the interior of a property to the exterior, a wooden one will not. Moreover, the material will not significantly expand and contract in response to heat. Of course, in certain settings, like doorways, a warping of just a few millimetres can inhibit function; but this can be attributed to changes in humidity as much as heat.

Wood is also an electrical insulator, and will not build up a static charge. Despite this, wood can soak up moisture – and drier wood tends to perform better as an insulator. It looks fantastic, and can be maintained using sandpaper and re-finished over time, making it a sustainable choice.

Perhaps the most important quality of timber, however, is its high durability and strength. It can support huge weights at relatively little cost, and it will rarely break under its own weight while hanging.

There are myriad different varieties of wood, each with their own specific quirks, some of which exhibit the properties we’ve looked at to a lesser or greater degree. You’ll thus have the ability to choose a material that precisely matches your needs. A hardwood like maple or ash will have vastly different properties than a softwood like pine.

What are the Downsides?

Of course, there are some downsides to using timber in a given building project. As we’ve mentioned, changes in moisture can cause it to shrink and swell over time, which eventually causes permanent warping. It’s also vulnerable to deterioration – both as a result of fungus and termites, and as a result of exposure to the elements.

To ensure that your wood is responsibly sourced, it’s worth looking for the logo of the FSC. This is a body which oversees and approves responsible sources of timber.