Choosing
wood for health
Timber or lumber is wood used in felling as well as structural materials for construction, wood pulp or paper production. Lumber can be supplied either rough, which is the raw material for making furniture and other things that need cutting and shaping, or finished, which is mostly for the construction industry – particularly coniferous species like pine, fir, spruce, cedar, and hemlock, plus hardwood for high grade flooring.
It’s widely recognised that living in a natural environment greatly benefits one's health. Forests, in particular, have a positive impact on people's mental, physical, emotional and social wellness. Wood provides a naturally healthy living condition for everyone. As a way of bringing the benefits of wood to people, more and more industries are making conscious efforts to encourage an environmentally friendly lifestyle. The construction industry in particular has developed homes made entirely of wood to help improve the planet's condition. Wood is easy to keep clean and helps to maintain an optimum balance of humidity by warming up the room more quickly while keeping condensation to a minimum.
Using wood can considerably reduce the usage of fossil fuels, thus emitting only a small amount of carbon dioxide into the air and keeping it sequestered during the entire lifespan of the structure. Wooden building materials are practical, beautiful, durable and are excellent value for your money. They’re also hard wearing and extremely comfortable. They can protect people from static electricity and provide natural humidity control. And, with only wood used as building materials for homes, there’s little need for certain types of processing or manufacturing that use a substantial amount of energy or chemicals.
Since wood possesses the ability to absorb and release heat, timber homes can maintain a desirable level of comfort for everyone living in it all through the year. White cedar and other types of wood used in homes are highly recyclable, so if owners do not need them anymore, they can either be returned to the earth or used as firewood to provide the atmosphere with more oxygen for people to breathe easier. So if you want an Earth-friendly and economically safe home, you can choose a timber frame home and explore the benefits with Mexframes Limited.
Energy-efficient timber frames
Mexframes – the UK’s number one timber framing company
If you’re the type of person who appreciates great architecture using natural materials, then you would probably love the idea of owning a timber frame home. Timber houses offer many benefits starting with the fraction of the time it takes to build one, the utmost attention given to details of its structure, energy efficiency and longevity.
If you’d like to know more about building a timber home for your own use, simply browse through the sub-sections below. Hopefully you’ll find this resource a rich source of information about the different advantages of building an environmentally friendly home with a timber frame.
Advantages of timber homes
In recent years, the timber framing industry in the UK has flourished into a successful business because the government is encouraging people to build energy efficient homes. Small and large timber framing companies are highly responsive to this need, thus heightening their ability to deliver premium quality timber products and services – whether off-site construction or delivering timber structures to the final site.
Timber as a structural material is continually increasing its market share, attracting more and more home builders and developers. Experts can foresee its continued growth as sales climb. In the UK, the industry produced over 40,000 residential and commercial units in 2005 and has experienced a growth of 11% in the previous year. The reason? Timber’s environmental benefits and sustainability are second to none – contributing to its popularity. Furthermore, it allows top quality products to be made quickly, and more efficiently – producing beautiful designs that are adaptable, durable and long-lasting.
Timber frames are suitable for any type of climate because of their structure. As a base material, it can provide people with the most comfortable atmosphere whether they live in hot and humid places like Australia and parts of Asia or they live in Scotland where it is usually cold. Wood is always a good building material. It is organic, renewable and non-toxic. Deforestation may not be an issue since most European construction companies use softwood. It is good for the environment because in some countries, companies are required to plant more trees than the number they’ve harvested – and with more trees in the surroundings, more harmful carbon dioxide will be eliminated from the air.
Every timber home will be able to save around four tonnes of carbon dioxide and reduce energy bills due to the structure's ability to sustain thermal efficiency. Furthermore, timber homes take about 30% shorter construction time than a typical masonry house. Better still, a timber eco-house can be weather-tight in as little as five days. Another important thing about timber homes is that they are very energy efficient even while firms are still building them. To prove that, timber uses five times lesser energy than producing concrete.
Construction project management aid
Owning a construction firm or a timber framing business can be quite a daunting task – especially in today's very demanding market. Construction project management can include the selection of a construction area as well as the costs involved. Thanks to modern technology, a wide variety of products are developed to provide assistance to business owners and managers. Construction companies seeking materials to optimise their work will certainly benefit from these products. Using a construction software will ensure that you have every base covered. The company will also be able to keep track of complex details and make it easier to break down work into small reports.
The size of the software's scope is critical to the success of the business. A software package that is blown out of proportion can cost more to operate than its value, thus harming the business instead of helping it to succeed. For smaller, more local construction companies, a basic software package can be more suitable given that the firm has already developed and adopted the basic construction practices and procedures that most software packages are based on.
Several software companies provide basic construction project management packages specifically designed to suit most small business models. One important thing to take note of is that only a few construction management software packages come in a plug-and-play format, although this is understandable since firms differ in their operations. However, most reputable and tried and tested construction software companies offer solid bases to build on as well as enough customisation capacity to fit the software to the business model perfectly. This is because most trusted software providers would have thoroughly and painstakingly researched and built their products around the most common business models. Ultimately, construction business software encourages the improvement of processes and procedures to increase efficiency and profits. Another essential thing to take into account is that construction software should be able to provide the firm with better data management such as disseminating data to employees through a network, plus time and billing reports used in payrolls.
Maintaining timber frame homes
The beauty of a timber dwelling is like no other. It is unique. Timber framed homes are both traditional and contemporary – something reflected in the technology used to build modern timber frames. Having a log cabin or a timber framed home gives you benefits that no concrete structure can ever provide. Aside from insulation and consistent thermal heat, you will also be contributing to energy conservation.
Of course, owning a home comes with the responsibility of keeping it in the best possible condition to ensure safety for the people living in it. That’s why it would be wise to make routine check-ups on electrical wiring, roofing, windows, floor tiles, water and gas pipes.
Furthermore, wood is susceptible to damage caused by weather, insects, fungi and more. Even in dry climates, wood will most likely face the possibility of rot and insect infestation, while fungi and insects consume dead wood cells causing severe damage that more often than not results in a costly repair. So, protecting it with wood preservatives will be a very wise investment to make to ensure that your precious abode will last longer. You can use wood preservatives like concentrated borate powder that can be sprayed or brushed on bare wood to protect it from termites, beetles, ants and borers without affecting the colour of the wood. You can also use a wood stabiliser to chemically harden and compress wood species that are commonly used in decks, and shake roofs as well as wood sidings. Then, there is the insecticide paint additive that kills insects after making contact with the treated surface. Those are just some of the things that help ensure the protection of your timber framed home.
Mexframes provides premium quality timber frames that will surely make your home or place of business stand out. We’re a leading company in the UK, providing bespoke timber frames of the highest standards while guaranteeing full compliance with existing health and safety regulations.
Investing in a timber frame home
Whether you want to invest in a timber frame home for residential or vacation purposes, you will definitely be delighted with the benefits. For a start, the beauty of a timber framed home is beyond compare. A lot of people love the appeal of timber frame homes – with buildings emanating a warm, country feel. Regardless of how large and how modern a house is, it still has that mountain cabin feel to it.
Timber frame homes are perfect for open floor plans since the exterior frames provide the support of the structure and there are no load-bearing interior walls. If you want wide open rooms, then the strong beams of the frames can allow this with its high vaulted ceilings. A genuine timber frame has huge visible beams with hand crafted interlocking joints without the use of any nails. Some of the most common heart woods used in making these strong, sturdy beams are Douglas Fir or White Pine, joined together by a mortice and tenon and held together by wooden oak pegs. The frames are then enclosed with insulation panels and studded interior walls. Due to its structure, heating bills can be significantly lower in such homes compared to other types of structure. It’s not unusual for home owners to notice at least a 20% reduction in their utility bills, thereby allowing them to save money.
For some people, the home should be the focal point for health, sustainability and eco-friendliness. Since timber homes use natural building techniques as well as non-toxic finishes, you can be assured that building such a structure has much less impact on the environment. On top of that, you can also be certain that your children's children will still be able to enjoy the benefits of such a home. So, if you are considering investing in one now, all you need to do is check out what we have to offer. You can be assured that Mexframes will give you the best value for your hard-earned cash.
Timber frame shopping
The art of using timber frames in constructing homes and places of business has been studied and revived by builders worldwide since the 1970s. Timber framing has been modernised with the help of CNC (computer numerical controlled) machines and tools typically used in mechanical devices to fabricate metal components. Today's timber frames use fewer and larger timbers in the 15 to 30 centimetre range, whereas the conventional system uses only the 5 to 25 centimetre range. In modern framing, mortice and tenon or more complex joints are used to fasten pieces of wood, whereas in conventional framing they use nails and other mechanical fasteners.
Over the years, manufactured panels like SIPs (Structural Insulated Panels) have become more widely used to surround structured timber making the enclosure visible only from the inside of the building. It has the benefit of being less complicated to build as well as offering more efficient heat insulation.
Now, more than ever, it’s crucial not only to buy products that are environmentally friendly, but also to make homes as energy efficient as possible. When shopping for timber frames, you will find several ready-made timber frame plans, but you can also opt to customise your own floor-plan. You’ll need to devise plans with exceptional character, beauty and flexibility. You can be assured that the resources needed to heat and cool your abode will be maintained with a selection of energy efficient panel enclosure packages that will suit all types of budgets. You will find several companies offering such services from design through to installation, all of which will be done by qualified and professional builders. However, you’ll need to research which companies offer the best deal to get a great value for your money. You can choose to call the company and ask as many questions as you want, or you can ask friends or colleagues to recommend a good company to you. You can also search the web for such companies and read reviews from previous customers to find out about the kind of service they provide.
In line with this, Mexframes is a reputable company that offers bespoke timber framing services that perfectly adhere to client specifications.
Timber frame properties
If you’re a homebuyer and you’re considering a prefabricated home, there are a lot of categories to choose from. A modular home is built in a factory from a stock plan or from a customised plan to the regional codes of the home's location. Elsewhere, panellised homes are made from insulating foam sandwiched between two layers of structural material. Steel frames are better known as post and beam structures where lumber is replaced with steel studs and trusses. Then, there is the timber framed home which uses solid wood timbers that are connected to wooden joints, dovetails or scarves secured with hardwood pegs. The frame is then covered with enclosure systems which make the timbers remain exposed only to the interior of the structure.
There is no building constructed from concrete that can match the beauty of a home built with a timber frame. Building with wood is a rich tradition that’s still being practised in many countries around the world. The grace, character and warmth of heavy timbers definitely make a home more conducive to living – and this is where you need timber frames, one of the most common methods of construction in the world.
As well as providing a home with incomparable beauty and warmth, the size of the timbers used in the frames will also make the building look sturdier and long-lasting – proven by existing timber frames in Europe which have been standing for about 800 years now. Aside from that, it also provides the structure with strength and design flexibility from a post and beam home. Since large posts take all the vertical loads, you can choose to place interior partitions anywhere or even not at all, depending on the floor-plan you want. Another benefit of a timber frame home is its ability to be energy efficient. Since the walls and roof system are built around the structure, it provides clients with an abundance of thermal energy full of insulation which is caused by the timber structure inside that resists dead and live loads. Also, with a craftsmanship like no other and premium quality materials, they will definitely out-price similarly sized conventional homes when you put them on the market.
