exterior wood
Exterior wood is facades, terraces, wood for the landscape area but also bridges, children's playgrounds, park benches and more.
facades
facade types
In addition to wooden facades, there are important facade types: aluminum facades, steel facades, fiber cement facade panels, Eternit plaster base panels, glass fiber concrete facade panels and ETICS.
In general, there are still many prejudices against wood outdoors in terms of durability and maintenance requirements, especially in relation to other types of facades . However, almost all facade types with comparable durability are rated by the BBRS. And as for maintenance, it should be noted that absolutely every facade requires maintenance over the years if you want to keep it in good condition, both visually and technically. It's more about the question of how easy it is to care for, and that's where you're (!) in very good hands with wooden facades. For example, fiber cement facades always (or should) contain hydrophobing agents on the surfaces, which can lose their effect with weathering. Even metal facades need maintenance. In addition, metal facades are usually significantly more expensive than wooden facades.
The main cause of damage to ETICS (thermal insulation composite systems) is the loss of condensation between the insulation and the external plaster. If the condensation water does not evaporate completely due to the high water vapor diffusion resistance of the exterior plaster and paint, the freezing water can cause flaking and the insulating material can gradually become wet. The consequences are a reduction in thermal insulation capacity and stability problems. This can also require a new construction of the ETICS, because a renovation of ETICS, including the external plaster on the system, is difficult and requires specialist knowledge.
With many facade types, repairing damage is expensive and often even involves a total replacement. A very big advantage of wooden facades, on the other hand, is their very good repairability. With wooden facades that are nailed or screwed, even individual boards can be replaced very easily.
Wooden facades - pay attention to the origin of the wood.
Wooden facades have a long tradition. They have been used to protect and beautify buildings since wood was used as a building material. Different regional building styles have given rise to different facade forms, be it the outside of the wooden structure itself, as in log houses, be it the cladding with overlapping boards or the cladding with wooden shingles. Facades made of wood are used today not only for wooden houses but also for design reasons in conventional construction. Today there is a large number of modern, technically mature products and forms of facade cladding.
Wooden facades made of various types of wood last a very long time, as many old wooden houses clearly demonstrate. Certain types of wood are particularly weather-resistant when untreated, such as larch or Douglas fir. Wood species from boreal primary forests are also used, such as red cedar from the USA/Canada or larch from Siberia. However, these types of wood not only have long, climate-damaging transports behind them, but often also come from overexploitation. With larch, for example, it is also important to pay attention to the local origin.
Today, thermally treated domestic beech, pine, poplar, ash or fir also offer an extended variety of colors and shapes for facade design.
Larch is mainly used for wooden facades. Today, most of this comes from Russia or even mostly from Siberia. And that although there is enough larch in the forest in Central Europe and enough sawmills for facade blanks can produce. One argument here is often the fineness of Siberian larch. However, in Siberia, too, it depends very much on the exact On the other hand, this supposed advantage is bought with enormous climate and environmental pollution.
Local larch is at least as suitable for facades as Siberian larch and there is no difference in terms of durability, especially in facades.
In addition, other types of wood are suitable such as pine, Douglas fir, oak, robinia and others, even spruce is often used. Above all, however, thermal woods from local manufacturers are also ideally suited here. For all types of wood, however, always ask for a proof of origin and a certificate for the short distances, such as WOOD FROM HERE.
Example terraces
Especially in the area of terraces, either wood-plastic composites or tropical woods are often used today. The majority of terrace decking in Europe is still made of tropical wood (54%), often from “unsafe sources” (depending on the source, 30% to 80% of tropical wood imported into the EU comes from unsafe sources or, according to the Red List of the World Conservation Organization IUCN of tree species that are endangered worldwide.Various domestic woods, naturally or thermally treated, represent a real alternative to tropical wood.Gearde Douglas fir and larch are increasing in outdoor areas (23%), but they often come from Eastern Europe, Russia and not from Germany or Central Europe although these woods would be present in our forests.
The most important process, which works completely without problematic additives, is the thermal treatment of wood - the result is so-called thermowood. This technique has the advantage over some other processes on the market, such as acetylation or pressure impregnation, that no impregnation agents are used. The wood is only made durable by heating and thus has a lifespan that sometimes even exceeds that of tropical wood. In addition, it has a number of additional positive properties such as reduced swelling and shrinkage.
Larch, pine, Douglas fir, fir, oak, robinia or domestic thermal wood such as thermal beech, thermal poplar, thermal oak, thermal ash is just as durable as, for example, the tropical woods commonly used here, such as Bongossi, Bubinga, Merbau or Akoja.
However, the climate and environmental protection effect of terraces made of local wood is in no way comparable with wood from Hier Verification. Bongossi, for example, comes from primeval forests in Africa. Akoja comes from New Zealand and covers the longest transport distances that can exist on our planet before it has arrived in Europe, once around the world so to speak.
Especially in the area of terraces, it would be very important to use public tenders to show how beautiful and durable our domestic wood really is. But even with larch terraces or thormo wood terraces, for example, it is important to pay attention to proofs of origin such as WOOD FROM HERE, since larch can come from short distances from domestic forests that have been sustainably managed for centuries, or from very low-lying paths from boreal primary forests in Siberia.
