If you´re thinking about timber and wood flooring, remember that here at ASC Building Supplies you will find an unmatched option for deluxe luxury vinyl flooring that will be an excellent choice for any type of flat floor.  Today we will review some pros and cons of wood 4/6.

Advantages

1. Dry assembly and possibility of prefabrication: it is much faster and easier to work than the wet work, allowing less waste of material and reducing the execution times. If it is also prefabricated, it greatly increases the control with its consequent reduction in terms and defects in material and assembly.

2. Thermal insulation: The wood does not just conduct the heat eliminates thermal bridges that with other materials is difficult or impossible to avoid. If this is added an adequate design can prevent most diseases that afflict existing homes.

3. Sustainable and ecological: On the one hand, this material eliminates thermal bridges reduces energy consumption, on the other it is of natural, recyclable and renewable origin, whose elaboration in relation to other industrialised products offers less waste, requires a low energy consumption and respects the nature and the environment. It is completely renewable if it is properly cut and with the relevant certificates that guarantee repopulation and care of the resource. In addition, it is reusable.

4. It accepts low maintenance coatings: Wood is an organic material, and as such if it is exposed to certain weather conditions it requires special treatments. Instead, it allows different types of finishes to be used that reduce the need for maintenance. For example, inside the wooden houses, the Canadian houses are not prefabricated, but they have greater durability and less maintenance than other systems.

5. Versatile and easy to handle: It is a raw material that supports a wide variety of jobs, joints and assemblies. It also admits a multitude of uses and dimensions for structures, substructures or decorative finishes.

6. Durability: It is a material whose durability has been proven over the centuries in traditional construction. Properly designed and protected, structural timber is capable of maintaining itself for hundreds of years without significant damage.

7. Economy: one of the most characteristic advantages is that it is much cheaper to build in wood than in concrete, brick or steel, why? Because the material itself is abundant, requires little manufacturing, is very easy to transport and manipulate thanks to its low weight and because the construction in dry reduces substantially the deadlines of work (even more if it is a prefabricated system).

8. Mechanical resistance: Structurally works well to tensile, compression and bending. If we compare it with materials such as concrete and steel of much greater weight and cost, we can be surprised: (according to CTE values ​​2011), compressed wood, has values ​​between 16-23 N / mm2, reinforced concrete: 20-30 N / mm2 and steel 215-460 N / mm2 while bending 14-30 N / mm2 in wood and 1.5-5.0 N / mm2 in concrete. The structural steel in this case, has very high flexural strengths. With this it can be seen that the wood easily reaches bending values ​​ten times higher than concrete.

9. Lightness: It is a factor to take into account, at lower weight, more material can be transported in a single truck, less people and simpler machinery are needed for handling, less weight itself has to support the structure, etc … that influences the quantities and costs.

Disadvantages

1. It requires a lot of control: As I mentioned before, wood is an organic material and this means that it is susceptible to alterations due to different factors such as humidity or xylophagous insects. So that this does not happen they require a meticulous control and a series of special treatments depending on the use that is going to be given to the piece. This demands to be strict with the certificates that are demanded among other issues.

2. Maintenance: Especially if you are going to be exposed to atmospheric factors, the wood has to be treated every so often with varnishes, paints, seals or other processes that make it maintain its properties. A “nice” wood requires effort, but in any case it makes it more valuable. Not for this we must be afraid that it spoils easily, an example that we all have in the head would be a port dock made of wood, and the wood will stand perfectly salt water one of the most corrosive substances for buildings.

3. Not viable for the entire population: Fortunately, or unfortunately not everyone likes wood, but what is clear is that there is not enough wood to build houses of this material for everyone in a sustainable way. With this, what I want to suggest is that more should be built in wood, but not that everyone does it.

4. Reaction to fire: I will explain in more detail this aspect that more than one person has taken off the dream unnecessarily. Just mention here that the wood reacts badly, but exceptionally resists fire well.

5. Dimensions usually reduced: Traditionally only large buildings have been built (avoiding large constructions in stone such as cathedrals) until the appearance of steel and reinforced concrete, because the greatest distance that could be saved in wood was basically the length of the trees that could be cut. At the present time the new technologies allow to “unite” wooden beams among themselves (laminated wood) and thus to save greater distances; but it is a way of building little extended in our country.

6. Variability: Not all trees are the same and therefore not all the wood extracted from them. Each species has different properties that make them more suitable for some uses or others, even within the same species there may be important physical variations such as knots or fences. That is why you have to be well informed about the classifications of wood before prescribing them, whether decorative, structural, for exterior finish, etc. For example, a young pine is softer than an oak, so the first will be more suitable for slats and the second for structural beams.

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