About Wood

     

 Introduction of Wood

Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic material – a natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin that resists compression.

The production and processing of wood uses much less energy – known as embodied energy – than most other building materials, giving wood products a significantly lower carbon footprint. As a result wood can be used as a low-emission substitute for materials that require larger amounts of fossil fuels to be produced.

These are used in construction work, such as timber framed buildings, fencing and floorboards, in furniture or made into pallets. Branches, tops of trees and smaller trees can be used as wooden posts, or are chipped and pressed to make manufactured boards.

Classification of wood

            There are two main classification of wood - hardwoods and softwoods.

 Softwood

         Softwoods come from evergreen and conifer trees, such as pine, cedar or spruce. The other class of wood is hardwood, which comes from angiosperms, such as walnut, hickory or maple. Softwood lumber is used for many woodworking projects because it is usually strong and easy to work with. Softwood is used by many woodworking professionals, including carpenters, cabinetmakers, furniture makers and woodcarvers. The classification of the wood is misleading because softwood is not necessarily soft. While there are hardwoods that are denser than softwood, many types of softwood are much harder. Softwoods do not have the same structure as hardwoods because they do not require vessels to transport water. The use of softwoods is considered to be environmentally friendly because the trees grow more quickly than hardwood trees.

 

                                  Pine
        Commercial pines are grown in plantations for timber that is denser, more resinous, and therefore more durable than spruce.
Pine is very easy to work with and, because most varieties are relatively soft, it lends itself to carving. Pine is commonly used in furniture because it’s easy to shape and stain. Pine generally takes stain very well (as long as you seal the wood first). Pine wood is widely used in high-value carpentry items such as window frames, paneling, floors and roofing, and the resin of some species is an important source of turpentine.

Hardwood

Hardwood is wood from decoct trees. These are usually found in broad-leaved temperate and tropical forests. In temperate and boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous, but in tropics and subtropics mostly evergreen. Hardwood (which comes from angiosperm trees) contrasts with softwood (which is from gymnosperm trees).

                         Mahogany

One of the great furniture woods, mahogany (also called Honduran mahogany) has a reddish-brown to deep-red tint, a straight grain, medium texture, and a hardness of around 2 on a scale of 1 to 5. It takes stain very well and looks great with just a coat (or 10) of oil.

The only drawback is that mahogany isn’t being grown in sustainable forests. That’s why Oxford Wood Recycling is a great place to find this type wood and similar like Iroko from West Africa.

 

 Benefit of wood

        Advantages of wood

Why Is Wood a Good Building Material?

• ·         Tensile strength – For being a relatively lightweight building material, wood outperforms even steel when it comes to breaking length (or self-support length). Simply put, it can support its own weight better, which allows for larger spaces and fewer necessary supports in some building designs.
• ·         Electrical and heat resistance – Wood has a natural resistance to electrical conduction when dried to standard moisture content (MC) levels, usually between 7%-12% for most wood species. (This conductivity is, in fact, the basis for one type of moisture measurement system.) Its strength and dimensions are also not significantly affected by heat, providing stability to the finished building and even safety implications for certain fire situations.
•  Sound absorption – Wood’s acoustic properties make it ideal for minimizing echo in living or office spaces. Wood absorbs sound, rather than reflecting or amplifying it, and can help significantly reduce noise levels for additional comfort.·
• Beauty – With the wide variety of species available, wood presents an incredible range of aesthetic options, as well as provides varied mechanical, acoustic, thermal properties along with others that can be selected based on the need of the building project.

 

   Disadvantages of wood

•  The disadvantages to wood construction include vulnerability to water damage, fire, decay, and termites. One of the greatest disadvantages of wood is that a variety of pests are attracted to-- and can destroy-- wood. Termites, carpenter bees, carpenter ants, powder post beetles and wood-devouring fungi are all common wood-destroying pests.

 

 Uses of wood

  Construction and Fencing

 Home Construction

During the early periods, use of wood in domestic construction was a common scene and this is still followed in this twenty-first century. In different parts of the world in the making of houses, wood is used commonly like the flooring, frames of doors and windows for its strength and internment quality.

            Fencing and Decorating Gardens

In modern decoration system woods are also used for building the fencing and simple decoration for artificial gardening inside a home or on roofs.

e.g. Cedar (Cedruslibani), redwood (Sequoia semipervirens), Shoreasp, Acacia sp.

 

 Household Uses

  Utensils

Utensils made up of wood instead of plastic and steel are a symbol of elegance which increases the charm and loveliness of the home corners.

e.g. Black walnut (Juglansnigra) wood is used in the west for home utensils. 

         Hand Tools

The handles of most common hand tools made of wood help as heat resistant when they are kitchenware used in an oven and closes the chance to shock while used on electricity.

    Art Industry 

   Artworks

For artworks such as statues, sculptures, carvings and making decorative objects woods are widely used. The frames of art board, color plate are also made from wood in many cases.

e.g. Pine (Pinussp), maple (Acer sp), cherry (Prunussp) wood for framing work. 

        Commercial Uses

  Furniture

At present, the market for wooden furniture is very profitable. No one can deny the demand for wooden furniture as it is a sign of aristocracy since ancient time.

e.g. Teak (Tectonagrandis), Jackfruit (Artocarpusheterophyllus), Mango trees are used in south Asia for making different types of furniture.

           Shipbuilding

Ships and rural fishing boats were made from wood. For constructing boats and ships wood is one of the most important construction material. Hardwood and softwood were used in the past for ship industry.

e.g. Teak, shal (Shorearobusta), mango,

 

   Fuel

Wood is an age-old source of energy all over the world. Before the exploration of gas, fuel was the main source we can also define as only one source of energy that people used by burning as woods were available in the forest easily. Generally, sticks, pellets, sawdust, and charcoal are used as an energy source from wood. Usually, woods from cheap plants are used in this sector. 

 

     Stationary

Some stationaries like paper pencil are made of wood. Wood pulp is used for making paper. Wood is used for making pencils too.

e.g. in the past Cyper papyrus trees were used to make paper. In Bangladesh woods from Keora (Sonneratiaapetala),

            Cost of wood

 Prices of timber can be bought at different prices in the market due to its type and strength. But we must always pay attention to high quality as well as reasonable price.

Prices in the market are not always fixed but we can get some idea from the table below.

 

  Conclusions

Wood is a beautiful and easy-to-handle building material that lasts a long time.  This is why it has a big place in the concept of green building.  Proper tanning can extend the life and prevent corrosion, making it an excellent construction material.