Cedar is a great material to work with. This versatile timber is often used by allows craftsmen to create furniture pieces like foot lockers and chests. Cedar can be used as building material for homes, too. Cedar wood produces lengthy timbers with a uniform texture and a fine, straight grain. As a result, wood is easy to cut, nail, and saw with common tools. Despite this, cedar wood is incredibly resistant to splitting (typically caused by fasteners). Moreover, it is pitch-free and its heartwood is naturally resistant to decay.
Cedar’s low density provides it superior insulation value. The wood is lightweight, easy to finish, and guarantees outstanding dimensional stability. It typically has a thin layer of sapwood, which is cream or light brown in color, and its heartwood is usually reddish brown or deep with tight knots accentuating it. In the Janka scale, Cedar is rated 900. It may lack hardness, but it compensates for that with excellent structural stability and superior shock resistance.
You can find a large selection of cedar products online. Western red cedar wood is great for outdoor applications. Building codes in North America classified this wood as durable for exterior projects, even without preservative treatments. The heartwood has extracts that are toxic to fungus, which cause rotting.
Choose a supplier who is known for carrying a wide range of hardwoods in the US, and make sure that cedar is responsibly harvested from sustainably managed forests in British Columbia to ensure a renewable resource. Only a third of a percentage of cedar from British Columbia is harvested annually. Cedar products can be supplied as boards, shingles, decking, lumber, or beams, so you can easily use them for any application. The material should be high grade with minimal imperfections and bowing. Cedar wood is best purchased in larger quantities to save on shipping costs.