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THE ADVANTAGES OF WOOD
WOOD HAS MANY EXCELENT QUALITIES:
Wood insulates
Wood is a bad heat conductor, because its cellular structure accumulates heat. That means wood is an excellent insulator and consequently wooden walls have excellent heat insulating properties. Wall sandwich panels have high heat insulation ability. They do not accumulate heat; they only heat the interior spaces. The specific heat resistance of our panel 19.5 cm thick corresponds to 66 cm if made of modern bricks.
Wood durability
The underlying material for wooden structures is pine-wood. It is perfectly dried and subsequently processed wood according to European norms even before it is used for prefabricated elements. It assures stability and lowers the risk of deformation of this natural material to a minimum. Furthermore wood is relatively light considering its flexibility and rigidity.
Flammability of wood
Wood can last for quite some time in fire. Massive wood burns at speeds of about 4 to 5 cm per hour. The burned layer contains carbon, which functions as a certain form of a protective coat against the fire. This way it prevents access of air to the fire and as we all well know, fire without air will die. Static properties of wood deteriorate from effects of fire much slower than static properties for instance of concrete pillars or steel beams. Wood can be relatively efficiently treated against fire by impregnation and its resistance against salted or acidic environment can be significantly increased.
Variable humidity environment
Wood is a suitable construction material even in an environment that experiences major humidity swings. Wood can well regulate humidity depending on the environment it is used in. It is very important that wood is allowed to dry out again. Therefore we often find wood in spas, saunas and bathrooms.
WOOD LIFE CYCLE
It is not true that life expectancy of wood is short. All old cities and their wooden timber and half-timber structures testify to that. Wooden beams of these houses are still in excellent shape and some of them were built in the 14th. century. Surface finishing improves its already excellent resistance against weather conditions. A suitable impregnation makes wood a material with long life cycle with minimum maintenance.
WOOD PROTECTION
Well dried wood prevents harmful insects attack. Wax or oil treatments are an excellent protection against inclement weather conditions. However, frequent use of chemical agents may be harmful to wood. Despite the fact that these products have significantly improved during the past few years, it is better to limit their use and to protect the load carrying wood and the outside wood regularly exposed to climatic conditions.
FUTURE OF WOOD
Wood enables building of light structures and is becoming one of the most favorite materials of the contemporary construction architecture. It meets perfectly the new technical requirements and norms reflecting the environment. Moreover, despite some commonly accepted viewpoints, the amount of wood in our forests is not decreasing, because wood companies work on the renewability principle: they don’t use more wood than they produce. Annual increase in forestation at the present time surpasses deforestation 2 to 3. When we compare wood properties to those of other materials, price of wood is without competition. Moreover its transformation uses less energy than production of other raw materials.
EUROPEAN UNION