Swift Garden Rooms tell why they choose to use Western Red Cedar on their garden rooms.
The Swift Organisation love this time of year. May is typically the month when Spring starts to seduce us into the joys of warm summers and everything Mother Earth provides for us. This is when our Swift garden rooms shine in all their glory, particularly those which boast the natural and attractive properties of Western Red Cedar. As in many building materials there are various qualities available and here at Swift we select 17mm cedar which gives our clients a high performance cladding to reflect the equally high standard of our other structural materials and workmanship.
Western Red Cedar (Thuja Plicata) grows in the Pacific north west from northern California to Alaska and has excellent durability for a soft wood. When compared to other cladding & trim materials, Western Red Cedar makes perfect sense as it has a unique beauty and character which naturally lights up any garden setting.
Western Red Cedar is hygroscopic, which means it naturally absorbs and releases moisture until in equilibrium with the surrounding atmosphere. The species has a very low shrinkage factor, is renowned for its stability and is superior to all other coniferous woods in its resistance to warping, twisting and checking. This means that cladding made from Western Red Cedar will look better for longer and that’s what we want for our Swift clients.
One of Western Red Cedar’s most valuable characteristics is its well known high resistance to decay. It is one of the most durable coniferous species for above ground applications and will typically provide many years of service life. Dry Western Red Cedar can be left to naturally silver over a period of time or alternatively can take most surface coatings. Caution should be taken with some water-based finishes as they may solubilise naturally occurring tannins within the timber but there are numerous other alternatives available depending on personal choice. It is also recognised as having better thermal properties than brick, concrete and steel. Its low density and high proportion of air filled cavities to fibre mass, ranks this species as one of the best thermal insulators among commonly available softwood timbers. It has a co-efficient of thermal conductivity (k value) of 0.11 Watt/ M2 oC at 12% MC.
For more information about Swift Garden Rooms visit their website or give the friendly team a call on 0800 3102 800
