Structural designers often chose Timber structures because of their natural appearance and good lasting appearance. However, this depends on the timber grade or type. Most individuals have been using them since ancient times. Their excellent versatility also explains why you will always find it in all places of design, architecture, and construction.
These constructions perform excellently, from furniture and artwork to finishes and structure frames. They come with several outstanding benefits, hence why you will find them in most projects. But, what are the primary pros and cons of timber structures? Worry no more! Continue reading this in-depth post to learn about the advantages and disadvantages of timber structures.
Pros of Timber Structures
1. Speed of Construction
You can erect them much faster than block and brick constructions. As a result, this makes interior trades like electrical wiring and plastering start earlier in your construction program because you will expose the interior to weather earlier enough.
Once the construction gets weather tight, leave the timber structure’s moisture content to stabilize. Take this step if you plan to clad the moisture content in dry plasterboard. Note that this will consume less of your time than the one needed for mortar drying.
However, they may need more time for their design and fabrication. As a result, you are likely to wait longer before the work starts on the site.
2. Carbon Positive
Timber structures have lower net environmental impacts than several other constructions, like concrete, aluminum, or emission-intensive steel. They are the only constructions that positively address climate change by promoting the long-term minimization of carbon emissions.
3. Low Energy Production of Timber Structures
The timber manufacturing process uses less fossil fuel energy (for every volume) than aluminum, concrete, or steel, reducing the pollutants created during this process. As a result, you can save between 0.75 and one tonne of carbon (iv) emissions if you go for timber structures.
4. Natural Insulation
Timber structures create natural barriers between cold and heat. The several air pockets featured within them help a lot in making this possible. Generally, the light timber structure is an excellent insulator because thermal conductivity increases as density increases.
They maximize comfort and minimize non-renewable energy use. Besides this, they allow the addition of more insulation materials in spaces between the timber frames without increasing ceiling, floor, roof, or wall thickness.
Cons of Timber Structures
1. Risk of Fire
If a fire erupts, they will not combat the flames/heat the same way streel/brick structures would do. You can treat timber structures with fire retardants, but this will only reduce smoke production and slow down the spread of flames on the surface.
2. Condensation
Condensation is a common issue in almost all structures. However, it is not easy to handle this problem. Condensation takes place when the inside warm air touches the cold wall that has poor insulation. Expect the building’s skeleton to rot if this issue occurs to a timber structure.
Final Thoughts
Generally, there is a common belief that timber structures are the ‘future structures.’ The market has only a few constructions featuring the outstanding benefits offered by such structures. Most people prefer them because of their varied features that make them perfect options for several applications.
Timber structures have been offering outstanding benefits for centuries, and their popularity keeps growing from one day to another. They are relevant constructions even today because of their aesthetic qualities, diversity, and versatile properties.
Some of the inherent features that make them ideal constructions include their durability, excellent insulating properties, performance, and high ratio of strength to width.
These constructions perform excellently where stiffness/strength to weight play a critical role compared to stiffness or absolute strength. Besides this, timber structures contribute a lot towards achieving sustainable buildings.
In case you need more information about such structures or need a structural design firm to help you with your timber structures, feel free to contact us.
