Hiring Contractors For Home Improvements
How to choose the right timber for your building project
Tim Graham
Are you planning a new building project for your home? Maybe you want to lay some timber decking, create a dog run or put up a wooden fence? Whatever project you are considering you will probably want to find a shop that has timber for sale and arrange to purchase your supplies before you can start work.
When you first walk into a timber supplies store you will quickly realise that there are a lot of different types of timber for sale and unless you have a clear idea of what you are looking for it's easy to become overwhelmed, or to walk out of the store with something that is entirely unsuitable for your purposes.
What to look for in your timber
Often the exterior appearance of different types of wood looks similar and it may not be immediately apparent that two pieces of wood are in fact, very different, an Oak tree produces wood that is of a different character to a Cedar tree, which is different again to Iroko. When choosing your timber you must be thinking about the relative strengths of each wood, as well as the way the wood has been cut as this has a significant impact on the properties of the wood. The thickness of the piece of wood is only one way that the cut can affect its strength, you will also need to look at the span and the width of each piece and decide if it is strong enough for your purposes.
Where will you use your timber?
When surveying the timber for sale you will need to think about where your timber is going to be used. Wood that is used outdoors will have to endure the rigours of the weather including both direct sunlight and heavy rain and will need to be treated differently from wood that will be used on inside projects. If you are creating an outdoors project then you should think about the types of hard wood available, or look at softer woods that have undergone a treatment process to stop them decaying. Treating wood is effective but can prove expensive, so it often makes more sense to select a wood such as, Oak or Cedar that is naturally resistant to decay.
For interior jobs, such as wardrobes you can use softer, lighter woods such as Pine. If sturdiness is important then Beech would be a great choice for any project.
Whatever you are building you can talk to your timber supplier if you would like advice on the best wood to choose for your project.
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Hello! My name is Richard and this is my new blog. On this blog, I hope to pass on some useful information about how to work with contractors. I recently decided that I wanted to give my property a complete overhaul. I wanted to have a new roof installed, the interior remodelled and the driveway repaired. I asked around and I put together a great team of contractors who could all work together to get the job done. However, that isn't to say there wasn't the occasion challenge during such a big project. I learnt a lot from the experience and I am really pleased with the work that the contractors carried out.