Building with wood is one of the most traditional, versatile, sustainable and environmentally friendly construction methods there is.
Archeological studies have shown that log structures were probably being built in Northern Europe as early as the Bronze Age and have continued to be the building method of choice for many Northern European countries. So why haven’t we British caught on sooner?
The answer is that I’m not sure why!
Its sustainable, Eco friendly, clean, quick, and durable. Everything we want in a building isn’t it?
One of the possible reasons is that I think there is still a belief that wood rots and doesn’t last a long time and that it requires maintenance like painting wooden window frames. That’s true if the wood is pine, which has low resin content but wood like Cedar, Larch and Spruce have an exceptionally high resin content, which means that it has an average life span of well over 60 years.
Wood will only rot if it cant dry out, so all cladding must be put on leaving a ventilation gap behind it and earth or stones must not be piled up against it. With wood it’s all about breathability. If it can breath it will last!
Another misconception is the weather. People think that because it rains a lot in the UK then again a wooden house will rot. This just isn’t the case though because if you look at the countries where they build in wood like Canada, Germany and Scandinavia, they all have weather that is much wetter and colder than ours.
Building in Britain with wood has come a long way over the last 10 years, with big construction companies favoring building using wooden frames and then facing them using the traditional brick or stone finish. Although we are moving in the right direction I still think we have a way to go though before our building culture and psyche really embraces the solid wooden log building methods.
Many garden rooms are built using a timber frame and then insulated or with SIPs (Structurally Insulated Panels). Spacetwo's garden rooms are different because our log construction method uses only solid wood to build your garden room. The logs we use are between 100-140mm thick and because wood is an excellent natural insulator no other insulation is necessary, which means that they are far more environmentally friendly and sustainable than other wooden building methods.
So here at Spacetwo Garden Rooms we think building with wood is best because...
- Overall Cost is much lower
- Its much quicker to build with
- More environmentally friendly than other methods
- More sustainable
- Its a 'healthy' way of building. This is because no chemicals are used in the making of the material.
- Its durable
- It has a naturaly beautiful aesthetic
- Very warm in winter. It has one of the best U values. See HERE for more information by the website The Greenage, which explains what U values mean.
- Keeps your building cool in summer
- Wood can be recycled