Wood as building material

Wood has become a favorite material for home and used for many purposes, ranging from roof to foundation, and always used in the process of building. No wonder, therefore, we need wood in house we live for many things. Wood has interesting texture and colors. Not infrequently, we buy furniture because the it uses wood that looks good.

I very much aprreciate wood because it was alive and become useful for human beings. In our studio, we discuss a lot about wood and other building materials. Do you know, 28 hectares of forest disappear each day because of logging, both legal or illegal? The impact is, wood supply decrease and increasingly expensive.

Wood has advantages and also weakness among other materials, it can be scratched, burned, and obsolete. Termites often become the main enemy of wood, that is why wood materials always require special treatment so it can be more resistant.

Texture of wood is characterized from which part of the tree the wood was derrived, such as from the base, middle or end, also at which direction it was cut will determinde the texture. The structure is formed by wood fiber and wood pores. Wood that has been processed, will lose their water content, so we will not see any more liquid in the timber. But usually new timber still have deformation.





Because wood is expensive, many people use processed wood from the factories, which are produced by combining other materials. The result; many new wood products are made from PVC, wood fiber, cement. These materials always have good wood texture, because it has a layer of wood.

Solid wood
Solid wood is usually used for home poles, such as pillars, or furniture made of fried wood or intacted wood. They are rarely made and that is why they are more difficult to be obtained.

Wood slabs
This kind of wood is used for wood floors, parquet, and others. The form is made of sheets of wood cut with size of 3cm, 5cm and so forth.

Plywood.
Plywood has thin layer composition of wood that is glued with crossing fibers to make it stronger. This type of wood is usually used for panels, upper table, dresser and so forth.

Laminated wood.
This type of plywood is made with layers of wood that has same fiber direction, usually used in furniture that is bent and it is not easily broken.

Characters of wood processing

• Usually plywood and laminated wood are made with certain size in the market, for example; 4' x 8'
  
• Processed wood is usually stronger than usual ones because wood had been dry processed so that it is not easily expand or shrink
  
• Unfortunately, processed wood is not appropriate for areas that often impacted by other solid materials
  
• Can be made to form curves that are not too sharp
  
• Wood can be easier to use, although it costs more.
  

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by Probo Hindarto

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