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www.dcep.co.uk Tel: 01630 673000 Fax: 01630 673247 Email:
info@directcontactexhibitions.com Post: use the Enquiry Sheet Canadian western red cedar
Timber
An example designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens R.A.
Canadian western red cedar (WRC), Thuja plicata, combines form and function like no other wood or man-made material. The wood is beautiful with an exquisite colour palette and grain structure, biologically durable, light in weight, dimension- ally stable, straight grained, insulating and with excellent acoustic properties making it ideal not only for exterior cladding - a purpose for which it is used most commonly - but also for interior panelling, ceilings, joinery, decking applica- tions, shingles and shakes, brises soleil, conservatories, greenhouses, saunas, gazebos, and fence panels to name but a few and each with a unique visual quality.
The wood is easy to use although knowledge of several key points is important to ensure optimum performance and complete user satisfaction. The wood is acidic resulting in, when wet, corrosion of metals in direct contact with it. Ferrous metals are particularly susceptible, the corrosion is accompanied by black staining which will migrate under the action of rain, hence the need for stainless steel fixings.
Extractives in WRC leach readily and the wood bleaches when exposed to daylight, in ideal conditions to nifty shades of grey. But not all conditions are ideal. The movement of wind around and over buildings, and thus rain water on buildings, is influenced by many variables. Projections of any description will have the effect of either concentrating rain water or, at the other extreme, creating rain-shadow areas. In both instances the result is erratic staining as the soluble extractives mobilised by the action of the rain are deposited when it stops raining. This staining can be avoided by judicious application of water-repellent coatings. And if using WRC uncoated for joinery, always seal the ends.
Leached extractives will stain whatever they run off onto - water repellent coatings serve equally well in obviating the risk of such secondary staining. Leaching is a surface phenom- enon and does not continue ad infinitum; secondary staining will wash off naturally in time. Also, the acidic run-off is not sufficient to cause corrosion of metal flashings.
Depending on exposure, untreated WRC is classified as providing a service life of 60 years, evidence suggesting potentially even longer, which, together with its colour, original and bleached, and enviable environmental credentials, explains its popularity as unfinished exterior cladding; hence the need to understand the staining issues.
The related issue of preventing colour change from the original natural is essentially impossible (although the 2012 Velodrome is performing exceptionally well in this regard); emulating the natural with application of a pigmented coating is one way to
maintain consistency of colour over time. Treatments are also available to improve WRC’s fire- rating to ‘Class 0’, should this be a requirement.
Readily available from a network of UK merchants who offer various grades, sizes and profiles and who can also custom cut to meet individual needs. Canadian WRC has a long history of use in the UK.
WH Colt Son & Co Ltd., founded in 1919, still make factory- built cedar homes at their Kent premises. Colt houses, noted for being warm in winter, cool in summer and economical in upkeep, have a fine pedigree having been designed by architects of renown including Sir Edwin Lutyens R.A., A.L Osborne F.R.I.B.A and Clough Williams-Ellis F.R.I.B.A., with some 16,000 in the UK alone attesting to their longevity under all weather conditions.
The environmental credentials of Canadian WRC are also second to none. The UK Timber Trade Federation considers Canada a ‘low risk’ country with regard to the legality of its wood supply; trees are harvested from sustainably managed forests certified in accordance with FSC and PEFC schemes. And the ‘wood miles?’ Roughly speaking, carbon dioxide generated transporting wood from Vancouver to the UK is about one-third of the weight of the wood which ‘eats-in’ to the CO2 sequestered by the growing tree by about 25% leaving 75% for reduction of ‘carbon footprint’ The BRE Green Guide to Specification gives an elemental rating of A+ for a timber-frame wall incorporating Canadian WRC cladding.
See Canada Wood at the DCE CPD events
For that contemporary design edge, it’s not just wood; it’s Canadian western red cedar!
www.canadawooduk.org
01252 522545 Reader Enquiry: 37
Capricorn Eco Timber are specialist suppliers and machinists of Western Red Cedar, Larch, Douglas Fir & English Oak amongst other species, having made a reputation for importing some of these species from Canada and Siberia, having seen the demand driven by the need to lower our carbon footprint,
Capricorn Eco Timber has diversified into supplying British versions of the same species for cladding, decking and beamwork mainly. From their supply base near junction 14 of the M6 Capricorn can supply any quantity large or small to all parts of the UK and Ireland.
Capricorn Eco Timber
Unit D, Ladfordfields Ind Estate, Seighford, Stafford ST18 9QE Tel: 01785 282307 Fax: 01785 282110
www.carpricornecotimber.co.uk
Reader Enquiry: 38 21
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