It's very difficult to estimate the life of a western red cedar shingle-clad wall in the Melbourne climate, since it depends on weather exposure (whether there is any shielding), roof overhangs if any, maintenance of a finish and similar factors. However, some general observations might help. Timber-clad walls survive best when water runs off without being trapped. Western red cedar is a durable species and is rated Class 2 outdoors, above ground, according to Australian Standard 5604:2022, Timber - Natural durability ratings. This implies a service life of up to 40 years, given a favourable environment and a well-maintained finish. Shingle roofs sometimes fall short of the 40 year target since there is greater potential for rainwater to be trapped in the shingle overlap. Also shingle roofs are not commonly maintained with a protective finish, so we would expect a shingle wall to perform better than a roof. Preservative-treated shingles are available in the US, which obviously provides greater protection, but we are not sure of their availability in Australia. Blackbutt is rated Class 1 Durability outdoors on a scale of 1 to 4 where Class 1 is the highest rating. Vic ash is not a highly durable species outdoors, being rated Class 3 untreated, but it is available preservative treated where it is marketed under the name Iron Ash, more info here https://ash.com.au/timber/iron-ash/.
We have a plantation of Blackwood trees, which are 20-30 years old and ready for harvesting. Can you use them in your products, in which form and sizes, or can you advise us of other wood experts who are looking for a blackwood supplier?
WoodSolutions is purely an advisory body and we don't produce timber products, so we would not have a use for your blackwood. Its marketability will depend on a number of factors including the quality of the logs, for example whether the trees were pruned to produce high quality 'clear' (knot-free) wood. Other factors include whether you are located near a sawmill, preferably one with kiln-drying facilities, how many trees you have, accessability of the site to harvest the logs and so on. Assuming the answers to these questions are positive your market would be cabinetmakers and/or specialty timber suppliers, which you will find by searching the net. To establish the potential value of the timber we suggest you consult a Registered Forestry Professional since this is a specialised area of expertise - more information via this link https://www.forestry.org.au/find-a-registered-forestry-professional-rfp/.
We (Cabinetti Panels) are distributors for Latho likewood products Italy www.latho.it/en/ veneers and thin solid laminations. Cabinetti Panels launched February 2023- We have commenced our campaign and establishing our product to the Architectural market, thus arising fire cert groups. Understanding that our product is very similar to products currently on the market and wondering if they can be categorized simply as they are – veneer / and then the required substrate . please advise further and thank you in advance.
At WoodSolutions we have a number of 'generic' fire reports, ie. they can be applied to different combinations of standard wood-based materials regardless of brand names. For example, Regulatory Information Report RIR 45982.13 titled Fire Hazard Properties of Timber Veneers on Standard MDF and Particleboard Substrates in Accordance with AS5637.1:2015 covers any type of wood veneer up to 1120 kg/m3, applied to MDF or particleboard of 6mm minimum thickness - refer Table 4. Other reports deal with the fire properties of plywoods of various species, but note that only certain species of plywood are covered. Regulatory Information Reports can be downloaded from the WoodSolutions website. If your products are not covered by any of our reports it will be necessary to commission your own assessments by an authority such as Warringtonfire.
