Spring is tough on wood
Spring means time to get outdoors and think about fence and shed projects. Sheds especially are the quintessential outdoor project for this time of year. Get your shed erected early and you can use it all summer.Wood is the essential building material of a traditional shed, and people in the shed business know that’s what people want. With their shed, customers are buying the value of good old-fashioned building techniques and basic materials. How can you improve on that?
What you need to know about wood:
- It’s a living product. Even after wood is cut and dried, it off-gases. Naturally occurring formaldehydes will continue to seep out of the wood, contaminating the air in your tiny space, unless it is sealed with an impermeable barrier.
- True boards don’t always come from straight trees. Like everything in nature, trees don’t grow in straight lines. If you could see the whole tree that board was cut from, you might be able to predict which way it will twist or warp as it ages.
- Water, friend or foe? Water feeds the trees when they’re growing, but it becomes their enemy after they are cut. Wood is porous and naturally absorbs the moisture in the environment. Wet wood is ideal for sprouting mold and sustaining invasive insects.
- Wood derives strength from its structure. Like any organic substance, wood is made up of a bunch of cells. When they break down, your lumber loses it’s strength. The result is ultimately spongey, saggy boards. You might not see that at first, but over time the wood will settle. Forcing treatments into the lumber (pressure-treated) will break down it’s strength.
Wood is natural, sustainable and easy to work with, but it is not perfect, even as a building material for backyard storage sheds and fences. You can see that just by looking at an old wooden shed. The raw wood tone starts to grey. Windows and doors no longer open and shut easily. You start to see moss growth or mold blooming if you look closely. These are the signs of nature taking its course on a natural building material.
TechWood offers a line of lumber treatment products to protect your outdoor projects, so they last longer and look better than the neighbor’s. Good fences make good neighbors; TechWood treated fences make envious neighbors.
