Ordering and processing wood

Things to consider when ordering and processing wood

You can achieve wonderful things with wood: a beautiful facade cladding for your home, a new garden house, a new terrace, a new fence, and so much more.

There are only basic elements that keep coming back that we have to consider when ordering and processing wood, decking, and shelves.

Wood has a particularly beautiful natural appearance wherever it is used. We often see beautiful photos of realizations, or we see the work of a carpenter, and of course, we would like to get started ourselves to create something beautiful ourselves.

Wood is an organic material in contrast to concrete, composite, metal, and others. We are happy to explain the following properties to help you with a perfect installation.

Wood is organic material

In many cases, wood has a beautiful pattern. However, a less attractive piece or a knot can appear in the middle of a plank.

By working in a wild pattern, you can look at this part of the plank and continue to work nicely with the rest. That way, you limit the amount of scrap.

In any case, we always advise ordering an extra 5% to compensate for such failure. That way, you are not forced to process this lesser piece in your facade or your terrace.

Or you don’t necessarily have to order 1 or 2 extra shelves afterward. If you do not wish to work in a wild setting but still at full length, the percentage of failure may be slightly higher.

Limit sawed loss

When processing wooden planks, you will notice that the available lengths do not always exactly match what you need. So you will have to shorten the planks slightly. The unusable part is called ‘sawn loss.’

Find the lengths closest to what you need exactly, so the sawn loss is kept to a minimum. That way, you will always have to order a little more than the effective surface of your terrace or facade.

We recommend that you always provide 5% extra. You naturally limit the sawn loss by working in a random bond with a visible seam here and there.

Fixed lengths

Which planks are closest to your desired length. That way, you save a lot since the sawn-up loss is limited that way.

Nevertheless, it is always best to take planks that are just a bit longer than what you need. In this way, you can shorten the ends nicely at right angles to always do perfectly.

After all, the ends of planks are not always ready to use and are best sawn before processing. With an average length of planks of, for example, 300 cm, it is also possible that these 290 or 295 cm can be used net.

By ordering your wood just a little longer, you not only prevent yourself from possibly falling short in length, but you can also saw the ends perfectly straight yourself.

Limiting Head Tears

After the trees have been felled, wood will dry, whether or not artificially in drying ovens, before being processed. This means that the short sides dry faster and faster than the middle of a plank.

Due to this difference in drying speed, it cannot be ruled out that small cracks, called head cracks, can occur on the short side. This is also another reason to order the planks slightly longer than the effective necessary length.

You can then cut the planks nicely to size and saw out the cracks so that you can only process the best piece of wood. New head cracks will virtually no longer occur if the wood is perfect in terms of drying.

Fluid Circles – Bleeding Disappear

Wood stored indoors for a long time will come into contact with rain and moisture during processing. As a result, damp circles will sometimes be visible in the beginning.

This is partly due to the substances present in the wood (such as tannic acid). After a short period, you will notice that this will disappear entirely by itself when these ingredients have been rained out.

Eventually, these circles will disappear completely, giving you an even gray appearance. These moisture rings or bleeding of the wood occur in European wood (oak, larch) and tropical wood.

Drying wood

Some woods are dried in advance, and some are not. However, the wooden planks will have to adapt to the environment’s varying temperatures, amounts of sunlight, and variable humidity.

If the wood has not yet been installed, it is therefore not impossible if you choose to process planks longer than 4 meters that the top planks may curl up slightly.

However, you will find that when processing the planks, they are still perfectly usable by fixing and fixing them in their correct position.

Small wind cracks can occur in the wood in Hardwood and softwood species when adapting to these changing conditions. This gradation differs per type of wood.

In general, you can say that tropical wood is less sensitive to this. These wind cracks also contribute to the character and charm of the wood used; think of oak wood, which owes its typical natural look.

Fixing material

Always use stainless steel material such as screws, nails, brackets.

Despite the availability of cheaper galvanized mounting material, the galvanized layer may be slightly damaged during installation.

Bringing bare metal into contact with wood can cause black-blue oxidation stains. Wood is, as it were, ‘allergic’ to the metal once exposed to moisture (such as rain).

These stains are sometimes confused with mold, but it is purely due to the metal used. So always use stainless steel.

Exclude sapwood

A trunk always consists of durable heartwood and on the side (bark side) a fine sapwood layer that is not durable.

This sapwood layer is recognizable by its different striking color, usually white-yellowish. We always only work with sustainable heartwood, making sure that no sapwood is present.

However, it is sometimes not 100% excluded that there is a minimal presence of spider mites, given the organic shape of the tree. An exceptional minute presence of sapwood cannot, therefore, be avoided entirely.

This also falls under ‘failure’ because of the small margin ordered extra, and you can see this piece nicely and do not have to process it.

Straightness of wood

Planks, shelves, and decking are, of course, always sawn 100% straight. However, planks (especially long lengths) can show a slight curvature due to the formation of an ideal degree of humidity.

All types of wood always have a certain tension in them, which is broken when sawing.

For example, with longer lengths between 4 and 6 meters in length, no guarantee can be given regarding straightness.

Of course, you will not receive convex or hollow planks, but a deviation of 1 to 2 cm can easily be accommodated. In that case, the planks must be sawn in 2, so the deviation is no longer noticeable.

Another great advantage of working in a wild pattern compared to full length. If you only wish to work with large lengths.

Natural color difference

Wood is a natural product where color differences may be present due to the natural pigment in the wood. As a result, it can sometimes happen that there can sometimes be color differences in a single plank.

The color will also change due to the amount of light. These color differences will disappear as sun and weather influences will make the wood gray so that one even gray shade will remain.

Tongue-groove connection

Shelves are always provided with a tongue-groove connection to ensure that the shelves have optimum contact with each other.

Thanks to this tongue and groove that fits nicely into each other, the planks remain nicely closed, even if they can show a slight shrinkage due to further drying of the wood.

Conversely, it is also possible that the wood will expand slightly during long periods of high humidity and rain.

So always provide a minimal expansion joint of 2-3 mm (also for tropical wood) in the tongue groove to have room to expand. Such grout allows the wood in the tongue groove joint to work without causing problems.

Cladding

Only one side counts for facade cladding: the front.

This is because the back is, in most cases, not visible. The front of the delivered planks will always be treated with the greatest care so that they do not get damaged.

Should damage nevertheless be present, greater than the minimal foreseeable amount of sawn loss, it will be replaced immediately. On the other hand, the rear is not considered.

These may show traces of the saw with which they were cut or traces of the packaging material.

In the rare event that the tongue-groove connection at the back is damaged during the packaging, but this is not visible once installed, a perfect front is maintained. Such exceptional damage, invisible after installation,