Why Engineered Wood is Better that Real Wood for Exterior Applications

If you are longing to give your Calgary home a traditional siding effect, or just add trim around the doors and windows, you may be asking is there anything better than real wood. Our answer would be ‘no’ when it comes to gleaming doors and panelling inside. However, wood’s usefulness for exterior applications is limited.

The reason for this is when you chop a tree down it dies, starts decaying, and loses its natural defences. Engineered or composite wood could go the same way, except the binding materials that hold the fibres together compensate for this event. Let’s examine why natural wood in unsuitable for exterior use in almost every application.

 

Let’s Line the Two Products Up and Compare

 

Traditional wood strips and siding usually come from slower growing trees including cedar wood and redwood. This material is relatively expensive, although the slow-growing trees develop better resistance to decay. It comes in various profiles, and can be painted or treated in oil. This needs redoing regularly. This incremental maintenance cost has caused wood siding to become less popular.

Engineered wood, by comparison is naturally stronger, because the treated wood strands and fibres combine to form greater, composite strength. The finished product is primed at the factory. Or we can order it pre-finished in the client’s favourite colour. The first recoating will only be necessary when the durable paint finally fades.

Moreover, engineered composite wood has superior defences against natural wood’s worst enemies, insects and rot. Because special water-resistant waxes and zinc borate allow engineered wood to resist decay, even in rainy, humid environments.

However, the decider in the comparison is the zinc borate in engineered wood permeates right through and insects hate it. Hence, every cut edge, and every crack or damaged place is as resistant as the original outside surface. Wood siding and trim may prove more expensive to install too. These cumulative costs can add thousands to a siding job over time.

 

May Valiant Exteriors Quote for Your Project?

 

We are a small, family-owned business with large experience of siding, exterior trim, soffits, and eavestrough gutters. We typically use LP SmartSide products, especially as trim around windows and doors. We are also able to supply Hardie board cement and vinyl siding depending on client preferences.

Please view our portfolio here of some of the jobs we have done. If you like what you see, we are at the other end of the line on 403 829 1661 in Country Hills Calgary.

Recent Posts

We Pay for What We Get in the Contracting World

Visible Cues That Siding Needs Replacing Before Winter