Design and construction of the wood for building

Wood plays important role for human life. Many household and stuff for human life are made from wood. Furniture, window, door, wall, floor, fences and are some of example of stuff that are still used wood as the main substrates. As natural product, the wood has many advantages; he is renewable, lightweight, easy to be handled easy to be formed and has nice appearances. But instead of his advantages, the wood also has some disadvantages. Since the wood is sourced from the life creature he could have big variation in properties and character. The wood is also a non durable material. The wood is naturally susceptible to biologically, chemically or physically degradation. To prevent this problem, the woodworking industry has been producing many chemicals including the coating and paint that is purposed to make the wood to be more durable. But instead chemically preservation, the proper design and construction is also an important thing to make the wood to be more durable. It is proven that with the proper construction and design we can make the wood to be last longer. Since of this reason, then we need to consider the proper construction to be done together with the chemical or physical treatment to make the wood last longer. 

wooden building 

Here are some things to be considered according to the design and construction for the wood product.

• Keep wood the wood to be dry as far as possible.

Water is one of the biggest enemies for wood. Water that is absorbed by the wood in small amount will wet the wood and invite for fungi and insects to live in. If the water is absorbed in the big amounts will swell the wood and become soft and even crushed. The moisture content changes in the wood will make the wood expand and contract. This wood movement if quite big could damage to the wood products. So it is very important to make the wood to be dry.
The wood absorbs water at the axial direction (along the grain) far greater than at the tangential direction (across the grain). This phenomenon relates to the structure of the wood cells that is designed as the “pipe” to flow water and nutrients from the roots to the leaves. This condition should be anticipated at the construction or design to make the wood keep dry. First thing is to avoid the water to immerse the end grain. The top end grain should always be closed or sealed. We can place the top wood grain under roof or we apply a kind of sealant at the wood top grain.

The opposite way from the bottom end grain. We can use this part to release the water from the wood. Keep the bottom grain open and with the gravity force will force the water inside to flow down and released at the bottom.  

   

 the construction of the wood on the ground
 

• Keep the timber away from the ground.

Land is one of an infinite water source. At the rainy season the land absorb water and become wet. Even at the dry season the land still hold water inside. If we there is wood exposed to the ground, then he is risk to get wet the wood will absorb the water from the land.  The land is also a media for fungi and insect. The termite one of the big enemies for the wood is building his house at the ground. Then keep the wood away from the earth.  If the wood is used as pillar, then it should be placed on the concrete or stone to keep it away from the earth.

• Accommodate the wood movement.

The wood is hygroscopic material that risk to have dimensional changes by the environment condition.  Although the wood product has been coated but there is still big possibility to the moisture content changes when it is exposed at the open air.  Then we design the wood product we need to always consider this possibility of dimensional changes. It is better to provide room to let the wood expand or contract.

• Use the proper wood.

The tree as wood sources has thousand species, and each of them provide special character and properties. Several types of wood have the durability for weather and suitable for outdoor uses, some wood even can be planted and used to pile on the wet ground. While the other kind of wood are more suitable for indoor uses. Some other wood is only work for interior.  When are going to utilize wood, then first time we need to find the wood character and properties to get the maximum benefit from this wood.