What are the benefits of timber cladding?

We know that timber cladding has many benefits, but which are best for your home?

Cladding is a material that is used worldwide, but mostly in Europe. It’s a material that can be attached to the outside of a building or home, providing a whole range of benefits from functional to decorative properties. It’s made from what’s in its name: timber! Its cladding made from trees and most commonly made in long, narrow boards, yet it’s possible to buy cladding that’s in panel form. A massive benefit of timber cladding is the flexibility the design holds, so you’ll be safe to know that not only is the material an environmentally friendly one, it can help lower your building costs and even save you money on your energy bills!

Lowering building costs!

Due to its amazing flexibility and design, timber cladding holds a low weight, whilst offering fantasticly high insulation properties. Given that you were to build a structure that utilises similar properties as timber, i.e. other materials that can insulate heat, you could completely eliminate the need for masonry walls in your build. Given that masonry foundation walls are eliminated from your build, you can save up to a massive 40% on the cost of your build! The home, being adept at insulating heat, will lower energy bills in the process, as minimal levels of heat are lost, so you’ll be saving money in more areas than one!

The benefits to the environment

Timber cladding is much better for use in building choices, simply because it’s commonly cheaper and better for the environment. As the cladding is timber, it’s coming straight from nature, which means production costs are lowered drastically. As it takes a lot smaller amounts of energy to produce timber cladding, you can make higher amounts of the building material for less compared to other materials used. The timber making process only requires the use of 1,000 kilowatts of energy per hour, compared to 2,500 for concrete, 4,500 for steel works and a whopping 20,000 kilowatts an hour for the production of aluminium. That’s an incredibly increase of 2,000% from timber making to aluminium!

Timber cladding can be changed to match all of your consumer needs!

As timber is taking from tress, lower amounts of chemicals are required to make the material, along with reducing the processes required to prepare the materials and the fossil fuels required to make the building material (fossil fuels are used in all man-made building materials). When the trees for the timber are growing, they actively take in carbon dioxide, whilst giving out oxygen. This process, as we all know, helps reduce global warming, as the oxygen levels go up and the carbon dioxide levels go down. When the trees absorb the carbon dioxide, elements in the air, such as pollution and smog, are also consumed by the tree, which results in cleaner levels of breathing air for human and animal life, as well as providing a healthier environment to live in for all! The final benefit of timber cladding in this aspect is that when it reaches the end of its life in the home, it can be recycled, turning into other useful substances like wood pulp. Wood pulp is incredibly important, as it’s used in the manufacturing process of paper products, like newspapers, paper and paper towels!

The flexibility of design

Timber cladding is a classic building material, being one of the first to be widely used across Europe for homes and villages. The aesthetically pleasing element of the material is not its only benefit: the versatility of its visual elements gives it the opportunity to be used in both contemporary and traditional styles of homes. Timber cladding can be produced from a variety of woods, offering different colours and finishes in this aspect. Amazingly, you can also paint or stain timber, which shows further levels of usability in the material.

So, do you see why you should be using timber cladding?

For more on the material and a number of builds, please visit our website to see more!