Hardwood Timber has continued to be one of the most used materials for making furniture, floor, and buildings in some cases including churches and cottages, for centuries. This article will look through the types of hardwood timber that are available for use, the advantages as well as disadvantages of using so. This article will also help to know about the ways through which home properties made of hardwood timber can be maintained properly.

Types of Hardwood Timber

To put it simply, hardwood timbers are primarily of three types

• Temperate Hardwood: As the name implies, these come from temperate forests found in the United States, Canada, China, Japan,and parts of Europe and Russia. Such forests provide a wide variety of deciduous trees, coniferous trees, and broad-leaved wood – including plants such as ash, plum, oak, and maple.
• European Hardwood: The European hardwood timbersare typically sourced from Croatia, France, and Germany and consist primarily of oak and beech. Oak has been for decades a prized wood for furniture. Although oak timber is still evident in the building, Beech, on the other hand, is widely used for painted joinery and furniture.
• Tropical Hardwoods: Tropical hardwoods, originally from Africa, Asia,and South America, are all hardwoods that are technically known as ‘angiosperm’ – as their seeds are encased in fruits or pods. There are only handfuls that include: Kapa, Cumaru, and Sapele. For sheet materials veneers these are a common alternative.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Hardwood Timber

• Hardwood timbers are extremely durable. This is because of the slow-growing trees; hardwoods are more robust although some vary in strength from others.
• They have a higher density which gives it added strength.
• They require very low maintenance and are easy to repair. A frequent sweeping and occasional mop leaves the floor looking perfect for years and simple sand and varnish can make it look as good as new once again
• Hardwood timbers act as better fire resistance than any other timber available.
• Thanks to the wide variety of styles, hardwoods may be used for any form of design or decor. No two hardwoods would be the same because of the natural variations, offering a special product-be it furniture or flooring.

Disadvantages:

• Hardwood timbersare marginally more costly than softwood. While hardwood flooring is low-maintenance, it may lose its shine gradually, meaning that occasionally it may need waxing, which adds an extra expense. It also needs skilled installation because it is laid in strips, adding an extra expense.
• In general, hardwoods are more difficult to deal with because of their
• When used for flooring, it can be noisy while walking over it

Hardwood Timber vs. Softwood Timber

The first thing one has to learn is that hardwood and softwood are not necessarily categorized by how hard they are, considering their terms. For example, balsa wood is known to be one of the world’s lightest woods, and yet it is labelled as hardwood. Instead, based on the basic characteristics timber can be graded as either hardwood or softwood. This varies with the variety of trees from which the wood comes, and how they replicate. On the one side, hardwood comes from broad-leaved deciduous trees such as oak, beech, elm, cherry and alder while softwood comes from gymnosperms such as pines, cedars, spruces and firs which are flowerless plants that grow seeds and cones.

Conclusion

Unlike softwoods, Hardwood timbers mature slowly, making them less widespread and more costly, but they are unrivalled in intensity and much more pleasing to the eyes.