Cladding
Weeks 27 to 34
Cladding
After securing our planning permission I arranged for a few samples of wood cladding from various trees and from a few different suppliers. I propped them up in the sun and watched for months as they changed colour and silvered off. We made a short list of which we liked, something with a definite grain pattern so not Poplar, not too knotty so not pine, thermally modified wood as it is less prone to shrink and swell and as it’s no longer sappy less interesting to insects and lighter for handling.
We also wanted tongue and groove with secret fixings through the tongue and minimal fixings elsewhere if necessary, this often varies by supplier some say screw, some nail very few actually say nail gun as it can damage the brittle wood.
We decided Ash was our favourite and got a few quotes from different suppliers, unfortunately when the time came to order prices had increased and we had to rethink as delivery became a big problem. We wanted it delivered by Hi-ab but most said the charge for hi-ab to us would be quite expensive or that they didn’t offer that service or it would be delivered to a hub then onto us and they couldn’t guarantee against damages. Read the delivery small print if you are thinking of having wood cladding. As it’s just me and my husband we weren’t looking forward to manually offloading the wood whilst the driver was waiting to make his next delivery and as no specific time frame for deliveries were available we couldn’t arrange for help offloading.
A local company in Somerset could deliver by Hi-ab at a reasonable cost but it would be knotty pine. We really didn’t want pine but as it was cheaper and the delivery method ok we reconsiderd but still couldn’t make that final decision. Then I found Russwood after initially discounting them due to the fact they are in Inverness and we are in Cornwall and at the time I had at least 4 other companies all based lower than Birmingham some much closer to us.
I spoke to Russwood and discussed delivery with them and discovered they deliver by Hi-ab on a big double length trailer but arrangements could be made that half of the trailer was left in a local lay by if necessary and our wood came on just the front half.
They offered us Thermo Pine but it is slightly different the knots are fewer than on other pine samples we had from other suppliers Russwood describe them as butterfly knots, through the length of the knot rather than across the heart (round knots), you do still get some round knots.
The tongue and groove is better designed in that each piece is fully pushed to the next but on the hidden side has room to expand. Most other tongue and groove needed a few millimetres between each plank for expansion which would slow the process down of putting it up and a bit more fiddly in general. Another difference in our wood is the face edges are rounded it gives a slightly more finished wood that could easily be used internally as well. As we we’re saving quite a bit on the Ash price we decided to over order enough that we can use some on the overhang, I don’t think we know yet how much spare wood we will have.
A few comments from my husband are that it goes up really nice, screwing in the groove on the tongue with electric screwdriver so most fixings are hidden. It’s all fairly straight and not warped, some damaged pieces by handling but can be sorted into useable lengths over or under windows for example. On a sunny day he is enjoying this job.
Cost to date
Brought forward £207626
Cladding £5357
Cost to date £212983
I have noticed the Suffolk meet up chats and thought that If anyone is interested I could have an open day once we have done some more cladding and the rendered wall is complete and hopefully solar installation finished. The renderers are due to start soon so I was thinking May or June. It will only be for Build hub members so just PM me and we can all discuss dates that suit a few of us. If nice weather BBQ outside in the Bude sunshine.
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