How much does structural timber weigh?

Ostania aktualizacja 30 January 2023

How much does structural timber weigh? Wood is a cheap, ecological and extremely durable material, so it is often used to build houses. This construction makes a very solid impression at first glance. 

What is the most common type of construction timber?

There are many indications that the most popular type of wood on the market is probably c24. This wood has a certain basic advantage – it meets all the elements of the restrictive standard known as PN-EN 338. To obtain it, wood must meet a long list of requirements – only if it meets all of them, it can receive the c24 designation. The class of wood with this designation has such precisely defined parameters that only about 15% of the wood obtained from felled trees meets them.

Why is c24 construction timber so popular?

Construction timber c24 is characterized by good parameters when it comes to the basic characteristics of wood. It is they that affect the durability of the raw material. These are:

  • Flexural strength,
  • Tensile strength along,
  • Tensile strength across,
  • Compressive strength,
  • shear strength,
  • the elasticity of wood,
  • Wood density.

Whether the wood meets the above requirements can be verified, among others, with the use of X-rays or ultrasounds. These are proven, professional methods that guarantee objective measurements and eliminate the risk of mistakes in assessing the quality of wood.

What is structural timber used for?

Most often we buy such wood to build a frame house. It allows you to build a very durable structure, resistant to both weather conditions and the passage of time. The wood for the house  is impregnated with the use of the latest technologies and prepared in such a way that the building is safe, well insulated and fire resistant in the event of a fire.

How is structural timber used?

Usually, when we start building a house structure, we have glued  or solid structural timber to choose from. How do they differ? Solid wood is used to construct walls, ceilings and roofs. Before it is marked with the appropriate strength class, such wood is first planed and then dried until its moisture content is in the range of 15% to 18%. An important feature of solid wood is that such a raw material is not connected in any way, it is made of one piece of wood, so it usually does not exceed 6 meters in length.

Glued structural timber, on the other hand, allows you to obtain different dimensions by joining different pieces of wood. Such wood is glued using a specialized layer method, and its main advantages are low weight and exceptionally high strength. To obtain this type of wood, it is necessary to properly prepare and then permanently glue together at least three layers of boards. Wood prepared in this way for skeletal structures does not delaminate, does not deteriorate, and gains extremely high resistance to changing weather conditions, including air humidity and temperature fluctuations.

How much does construction timber cost?

If we decide to build a house, we should undoubtedly be interested in structural timber. However, the price of such a product varies depending on several factors. The region of the country, the amount of purchased raw material, the type of tree from which it was made, the shape of specific elements – all this affects the cost of structural timber. The price list for the region we are interested in can usually be found on the websites of the distributors we are considering. However, it can be assumed that the price of c24 wood will be around PLN 1,500 per cubic meter.

How much does structural timber weigh?

Structural wood for frame houses is often the solution we choose because of its weight. There is no denying that wood weighs much less than other materials that are often used to make structures, such as steel or concrete slabs with steel reinforcements. It also has a greater lifting force in case of fire. If it is properly maintained beforehand, in the event of contact with fire, it will withstand high temperatures longer and hold the building.

And how much does construction timber weigh exactly? It depends, among other things, on what tree it was made of. The heaviest wood is that from the following trees:

      • boxwood,
      • hornbeam,
      • yew,
      • beech,
      • oak,
      • pear tree,
      • nut,
      • ash.

Slightly lighter will be:

      • birch,
      • larch,
      • elm;
      • clone,
      • sycamore,
      • apple tree,
      • chestnut,
      • juniper.

The lightest construction timber will be made of trees such as:

      • pine,
      • lime tree,
      • alder,
      • spruce,
      • fir,
      • poplar.

This is because the parameters of a given tree species determine the final weight of the wood. The denser the wood is after drying, the more it weighs. Depending on which species we choose, we can expect a large fluctuation in weight. It starts from 250 kg per cubic meter, but can reach even several times more weight – wood weighing over 800 kg per cubic meter is known.

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