Timber Balustrades
January 27th, 2010Author: stairmasterTimber
Timber is wood that has been felled. Timber is used for all sorts of purposes, from wood pulp for paper production to furniture, structural materials, tools, toys, artworks, weapons and so on. The two main types of timber are softwoods and hardwoods, although many materials are actually engineered wood products today.
Hardwood is sourced from angiosperm trees, which are usually produce flowers, are broad-leaved, mostly deciduous in temperate latitudes or evergreen in the tropics.
Softwoods come from conifer trees, which tend to be evergreen. There are about a hundred times as many hardwoods as softwoods, and yet softwoods are used in about 80% of the world’s timber production. The traditional centres of softwood production are in the Baltic region and North America. The reason softwoods are used so extensively is that it is easy to work with. There are fewer cells in softwood trees and yet they grow longer than hardwoods, making them usually soft. Hardwoods on the other hand have a more complex structure with vessels that vary in size, shape of perforation plates and structure of cell wall. Common hardwoods include the oaks, beech, ash, maple and cherry.
Timber Balustrading
There are many balustrade styles in which timber can be used. These include horizontal timber slats, outlook balustrades, turned timber balustrades, square timber balustrades, and combination balustrades. Stairking’s horizontal timber balustrades use stainless steel handrail fixed over stainless steel uprights, and tightly spaced horizontal timber slats. The Outlook balustrade is configured with two vertical stainless steel balusters at each end of a section, with horizontal timber rails as balustrades and a timber handrail.
The turned timber balustrades can use a traditional or modern style, accompanied by different types of scrolls, newel posts, carved or plain handrails, closed or open cut strings. The combination balustrade combines a rectangular timber balustrade with a feature balustrade, such as a double twist and basket steel baluster.