Articles: Oak Wood in Construction

Throughout the country there are both old and new buildings that have been built using oak wood. The timber sets the building alight and is one of the first talking points for people seeing the building for the first time.

When used to form the frame of a building, Oak, is easy and quick to work with allowing you to easily put your structure together. Oak wood is great for trusses, beams and pillars and is particularly useful when restoring old barns, building house extensions and adding a solid structure to your garden.

Green oak (commonly used in construction) will change over a period of time in the following ways:

1. If untreated, the oak will eventually turn a silvery grey colour (as will all wood) if exposed to the sun’s rays
2. The timber will shrink slightly and lose moisture content
3. The wood will check in certain places. This won’t damage the instructional integrity of the wood.

Oak will not need to be treated to protect against damage from weathering and infestation because it is already naturally resistant to those threats. However, you will still need to make sure that you protect the timber from damp caused by poorly maintained gutters and downpipes.

Oak Wood Conservation

iWood are members of both the FSC® and PEFC which are leaders in the conservation of forests as they make wood a reliable and renewable resource. Forests managed by these organisations are sustainable and their members strictly monitored to make sure that the world’s forests don’t disappear.

Their members are audited once a year and are heavily scrutinised to make sure that they do not break regulation. In order to preserve the environment and a healthy supply chain iWood only source timber from renewable sources such as these.