01 Sep Enhancing the Beauty and Longevity of Australian Native Timber in Modern Designs

Timber, particularly Australian native timbers, feature heavily in modern designs when they are left in their natural state and clear finished. They bring contrast and warmth to a property that paint simply cannot do. Unfortunately many home owners find out the pitfalls all too soon when their timber features begin to deteriorate and quickly.

Timber needs to weather and leach out tannins before it is treated and it needs to be coated in the correct way to ensure it lasts and maintains its beauty. All too often we see recently added timber features begin to blister, and discolour and the coating flaking off. This is because the trade involved has simply put a couple of coats of an off the shelf generic oil or varnish over the recently milled timber batten or structural member.

The photo above highlights a recent preparation of Australian Spotted Gum for use as timber handrails above glass balustrade. In situations like this you cannot rely on the timber merchant picking the best available for you, particularly if there is no ability to straighten it. So I travel to our suppliers and hand select what I want to use. Then the tannins are removed via a series of products that express the leaching affect saving months of onsite weathering. This is followed by high pressure water blasting & scrubbing. Once dry the final coating process can begin which is a coat a day over 3 days.

A little bit of effort goes a long way and while these beautiful handrails will need to be maintained, the programmed maintenance is reasonably straight forward due to the proper preparation to begin with. To find out more click here.