Information on caring for timber products such as skirting boards, flooring, door frames etc.

Information

Caring for your timber

Wood and wooden products are hydroscopic which means their moisture content varies depending the local humidity conditions. Wood also has an 'equilibrium moisture content', which means it will expand/contract and then stabalise upon its surrounding environment.

What this means for you is that you should clear up spills quickly off any wooden floor, table, chopping board or even from around the skirting boards. If the wood remains wet for any length of time, it will expand and swell, and almost certainly not remain in the shape that was intended!

It is also not a good idea to leave any wooden product in direct sunlight, or in contact with any hot surface (such as hot mugs in the case of tables) as this will damage the surface of the wood, and even change the colour significantly over time.

Timber and the environment MDF is a "Medium Density Fibreboard" - which means it is an environmentally friendly way of using timber. It is produced from quick-growing pine woodlands that are regularly replenished.

The woodlands and forests used can be found worldwide, including the British Isles. This particular timber absorbs a high amount of carbon dioxide (Co2) and locks it into the carbon of the timber (charcoal) and releases oxygen into the environment. These timbers take only 15 - 40 years to grow, whereas other trees can take over 200 years to mature - such as mahogany and other rare hardwoods. For this reason many timbers are banned from use, and even require permits to import and use for production

Custom Orders and sizes

If you have any requirements, sizes or orders that you do not see on our site, you may contact us for a specific order custom made to your needs.

Sizes indicated for all our products are also standard sizes which fit most houses, hotels and rooms, however if you need it to be adjusted this is not a problem. Click here for more information on MDF Skirting Boards

Information

Caring for your timber

Wood and wooden products are hydroscopic which means their moisture content varies depending the local humidity conditions. Wood also has an 'equilibrium moisture content', which means it will expand/contract and then stabalise upon its surrounding environment.

What this means for you is that you should clear up spills quickly off any wooden floor, table, chopping board or even from around the skirting boards. If the wood remains wet for any length of time, it will expand and swell, and almost certainly not remain in the shape that was intended!

MDF and the environment Custom Orders and sizes

If you have any requirements, sizes or orders that you do not see on our site, you may contact us for a specific order custom made to your needs. Sizes indicated for all our products are also standard sizes which fit most houses, hotels and rooms, however if you need it to be adjusted this is not a problem.

Information on Timber

Of the land surface of the world about one-fifth is covered by forests and there are thousands of different species of wood producing plants. These wood producing plants are mans heritage, something he has depended upon to live by throughout the centuries. It has been said that man is dependent on wood from the cradle to the grave The British standards institution lists over 300 different species, which can be used commercially but of these only a small proportion are in everyday use in carpentry and joinery. An understanding of the characteristics, uses, defects and of its natural propensity to shrink and swell under certain circumstances is an essential part of the knowledge of the man who uses timber. Joinery manufactured from unsuitable or incorrectly seasoned timber will be a source of worry both to the user and the maker. A tree can be divided into three parts: roots, trunk or bole, and the crown.

The roots; these form an anchorage for the tree and consist of the main roots from which branch rootles on which are root hairs, thus an interwoven mesh is formed under the soil. As well as forming an anchorage the roots take in moisture, a most important function, for without this a tree could not live. The moisture is a solution containing minerals and is taken in by the root hairs and passed via rootlets and the main root to the trunk or bole. Trunk/bole; this transports the moisture, referred to as sap from the roots to the crown and is passed up through the sapwood only. The remaining portion of the trunk consisting of heartwood. Food is stored in parenchyma cells in the sapwood. The trunk is a support for the crown; therefore it must be strong and flexible enough not only to support the weight of the branches and leaves but also to withstand strain thrown upon it in high winds. The timber used in carpentry and joinery comes from this part of the tree. The crown; this consists of the braches, twigs and leaves. The leaf is the factory of the tree, for it is here that the sap is converted into the food the tree requires to promote growth. Carbon dioxide is taken into the leaf through openings in the underside – the green matter in the leaf called chlorophyll, combines this with the sap and with energy obtained from the sun converts it into sugar and starch. This food is passed through the inner bark or bats to the growing parts of the tree –the tips of the twigs, the root tips and the cambium layer where the tree grows in girth. (The ‘rings’ of the tree) Softwoods and hardwoods

Timber is classified into two main groups: softwoods and hardwoods.

Softwoods come from coniferous trees – evergreen cone0-bearing trees having needle shaped leaves.

Hardwoods come from deciduous trees – broad-leafed trees having cased seeds and which shed their leaves in winter.

While this general classification is true in most cases there are exceptions. E.g. holly, an evergreen is a hardwood, larch is a deciduous and is a softwood.

The terms soft and hard can also be misleading, e.g. balsa is a hardwood but is a very soft wood and weighs in the region of 8lb per cubic foot whereas pitch pine, which is a softwood is hard and weights up to 40lb per cubic foot.

A more accurate way of deciding whether a piece of timber is in the softwood or hardwood class is to make a clean cut on the cross section (end grain) surface with a sharp knife or chisel and look at this cut surface through a magnifying lens.

Growth or annual ring In this part of the world the tree lays down a portion of new growth year, although in the tropics two growths are possible in one year. A growth ring is divided into two parts, the spring growth and the late summer growth. Ray parenchyma are cells which form radiating lines towards the centre of the tree called the pitch or medulla, hence the name medullar ray. In softwoods these rays are generally one cell wide and they are visible only under a microscope. Their function is the sapwood is to store food. The other type called tracheid performs two jobs: a) in the spring growth they have thin walls with large cavities in the centre and conduct moisture from the roots up to the leaf, b) in the late summer growth the walls of the cells are much thicker and they form a band of supporting cells to help support the trunk and branches when in full leaf or in high winds.

Timber A vertical resin canal is contained in some softwoods, and the function is not fully known. Hardwoods are more complex in their structure; they have different cells for each job. The ray parenchyma, a food storage cell, performs the same function as in the softwood but in different timbers the width of the ray varies from a single cell wide, up to 20 or more as in oak.
Pores or vessels are the conducting cells and are large as the beginning of a year’s growth with smaller ones dispersed throughout the summer growth. A definite ring of pores is formed, hence the name ring porous but scattered or diffused rings are a type of growth named diffuse porous.
The strength or supporting cells are called fibres and are seen as patches between rays and pores. It can be said that the outstanding difference between softwoods and hardwoods is-hardwoods have pores and sofwoods have not.

Conversion of timber: By conversion is means the sawing or breaking up of the log into boards, planks or deals. The method of conversion depends upon a number of factors such as constructional requirements, decorative effect required, wearability and stability and whether the heart of the log is sound or not. The following are methods of conversion:
Flatsawing or through and through sawing
Rift or quarter sawing
Boxed heart
Tangential sawing

A combination of flat and quarter sawing is sometimes used to obtain as economical a conversion as possible
A flat sawn log is the cheapest and most economical way of converting a log, as it is often possible to cut the whole log into boards or deal at one operation on a log frame saw. There are however objections to its general use. Apart from those boards which lie near the centre of the log boards so cut will be liable to considerable shrinkage in their width together with accompanying warping and distortion. Boards which are flat sawn have their surfaces more or less tangential to the annual rings of the tree.

Quarter sawn stuff is more expensive than flat sawn as more time and labour is needed in its conversion. In addition there is more waste attached to the conversion of the log into quarter-sawn boards than into flat sawn boards.