There is more to trees than you think
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Wood has been a popular building material for years and it seems that it is increasing in its popularity as people become more conscious about the impact that they have on the environment as well as the aesthetics of their property. A timber frame construction company like http://www.qtfhomes.co.uk/ can provide you with all the elements that you need to build your own home or perhaps you are a building developer looking to move across to this more natural building material. It is definitely worth taking a look at what they have to offer.
In the meantime here are some facts that you may not know about the trees that give us this valuable building material:
- A tree never dies from old age. This is why if protected and properly looked after (or left alone) a tree can easily reach 1000 years old. What kills trees are diseases, insects and unfortunately humans.
- Softwood and Hardwood are not named because of their strength. The differentiation is made based on the leaves and seeds the tress produces as a way to try and categories the tress. Similarly to how deciduous and coniferous describe whether the trees looses or keeps its leaves in winter.
- There are trees that grow incredibly tall and contribute to the canopy layers of the worlds rainforests but there are also trees that stay very small. The Dwarf Willow reaches an incredible size of just a couple of inches and at full height reaches no further than a humans ankle.
- A Giant Sequoia called General Sherman is reported to be the largest living organism on the planet. It is over 274 feet high and 104 feet wide. Now that is a tree that it would be difficult to hug!
- Although there are many parts of the world that have still be relatively untouched by humans and even more that haven’t been fully researched it is thought that there are around 23,000 different species of trees on the planet.
- Wood is used in construction as it is thought that it is not only a great building material and a more environmentally sound one (as long as the wood is sourced from a sustainable forest) but also because wood is thought to be 400 times warmer than steel, meaning that it can actually help reduce your energy consumption in trying to warm your house in the colder months.
Trees really are fascinating and there is so much more to them than you first think.
