In Europe, production and consumption of thermally modified hardwoods is on the rise as more and more architects and engineers recognize the treatment as a technology to increase hardwood’s durability and thus making it an excellent material for exterior joinery, decking, cladding and window manufacture. Advantages include:
- It is free of chemicals; it hides any staining on the raw timber; it eliminates the need for stainless steel fixings, and it has excellent machining properties and better thermal values.
- The finished color is consistent regardless of color variations from the heartwood and sapwood of the raw material.
- The treatment does not dull character – depending on the species, the grain pattern remains apparent – or color, which can vary from pale to cark chocolate brown.
- Many species work with heat treatment, (high density and ring porous species do not), but particularly good results are achieved with high grade ash and tulipwood.
Germany is already using heat treated cores in windows because it improves the thermal performance of the windows by 10%. And in the United States, the technology continues to gain recognition, making hardwood “an ecologically friendly alternative to chemically treated wood.”
Case Studies are available here.
