Tips for low maintenance external timber facades

Timber is often used in construction due the numerous benefits associated with it. Timber brings natural warmth and aesthetic properties to any building that it’s used on. However, despite all these positive attributes of timber, it comes with its fair share of demands when it comes to maintenance. It’s for this reason that builders opt for low maintenance external timber facades in various timber types for buildings.

Natural External Timber Cladding

Natural timber cladding is another low maintenance way of ensuring external timber is well maintained at a minimum cost. Different external timber demands various upkeep methods to make them durable over a long time. One such way is the initial treatment of the timber before it’s used for construction. This treatment ensures moisture is eliminated making the timber dry. The treatment enables a coating of the surface of the timber to ensure there’s minimal chance for hazardous external elements to penetrate the timber. The wood cladding treatment also contributes to an even weathering rate of the timber used in construction. 

Using desired External Timber Coatings

There exist various external timber coating types that can be used to achieve low maintenance whilst also accentuating the aesthetics of the timber. Applying timber coating is a way of protecting the timber from being exposed to UV rays, water, rain, and other harmful elements. The timber coating protection varies in degree of protection. Some of the coating used include: penetrating oil; which penetrates the timber so as to hydrate it. The penetrating oil can protect timber for a period of one year to one and a half years. Apart from penetrating oil, film coating can be used on external timber to protect it from external elements. Film coating fills the timber’s pores thus creating a thick surface that prevents UV rays from penetrating and weathering the timber. Film coating can protect the external timber for a period of up to 48 months.

Silvering of External Timber

Another approach to ensure that a homeowner has minimal maintenance cost for their external timber is through the natural silvering process. In this case, the timber’s surface cells are pigmented with coating to help prevent its degradation from UV rays. Once the timber has been allowed to silver naturally, the homeowner uses less maintenance cost in taking care of the external timber.

Positioning of the External Timber

Since timber is a natural material, when it’s exposed to rain and UV rays it quickly weathers and thus demands constant maintenance. The positioning of the external timber determines whether it will be able to hold onto its aesthetic for a long time with low maintenance, or it will require regular costly maintenance in order to hold on to its aesthetics for a prolonged period. Internal timber surfaces have minimal to none exposure to UV light and therefore may require no maintenance to preserve the aesthetic of the timber. When placing external timber it’s important that the construct identify the right positioning to place the timber so that it can radiate its aesthetics, while at the same time protected from the environmental elements that will hasten its decay. 

One of the areas timber is used externally is to showcase its beauty while ensuring it costs low maintenance is the soffits and eaves areas. The two areas are useful in accentuating the aesthetic of the timber while at the same time keeping the maintenance cost low. Another way in which positioning can be used advantageously in external timber is to use timber behind glass. This enables the external timber to portray its beauty while being protected from external elements making its maintenance cost to almost zero.

Deciding what’s best for you

Timber is popular among many households because of its natural aesthetics and good value for money factor. However on the flip side, it’s beauty comes with its fair share of maintenance costs which most homeowners do not enjoy. With the tips above, you can easily maintain your external timber facades while incurring minimum expenses.