In this flashback story to October 2007, senior editor Jim Bowden talked to timber maintenance veteran Roger Denley about his concerns that many designers are still very slow in coming to grips with the thermal aspects of a building.
That was 18 years ago, and Roger was speaking with the authority of a 40-year career in timber maintenance. His opinions today have stood the test of time.
Tucked away in a wooded block off the Gold Coast highway south of Brisbane, the Denley cedar home is a shining example of the weathering abilities of timber.
The condition of the cladding and internal panelling suggests Roger Denley’s house is a recent project, but it was built more than 20 years ago.
“Wood is the living, breathing ‘skin’ of the building, and like the human skin will suffer under the harsh Australian climate,” Roger maintained.
“So, there’s no real secret to the un-aged surface appearance of the plantation timbers we used – they have lasted because we applied paints and finishes in a maintenance cycle.”
Roger, who has been in the timber business for more than 40 years, is concerned about a trend by architects and designers to leave buildings without maintenance to achieve a ‘true weathered’ appearance.
“Now that’s OK with, say, a spotted gum facia. But with cedar and other softwood timbers they’ll look like an old fence post in 10 years, deprived of moisture and subject to splitting.”
Roger reckons that timber itself is a perfect material – relatively inexpensive, aesthetically pleasing and easy to upkeep, a very natural material that suits most terrains and most lifestyles.
“But for some strange reason many designers have been very slow in coming to grips with the thermal aspects of a building. They treat nature with total disregard, shoving huge expanses of glass smack bang where the hottest sun is going to shine. They use sub-standard products, the wrong finishes and cutting corners everywhere and then blame the timber itself for problems they themselves have created.”
Warming to the subject, Roger said: “You find this most often with exteriors. We have a very harsh climate in Queensland, so it stands to reason that timbers used in external construction should be protected, wherever possible, from the elements.
“Now there are two ways you can do this – making sure your house is designed by someone who’s environmentally aware so that all the thermal aspects of the elements such as wind, rain and so on are taken into account, and countered with positioning, eaves, overhangs, verandahs and so on, and secondly by paying great attention to the finishing system you use.
“More so-called problems with timber today are caused either by people using the wrong or sub-standard product to finish the job, or by cutting costs and using one coat where the product specifies three.”
When we visited Roger’s home we identified a dozen different plantation species among the beams, walls and panellings inside. These are dominated by western red cedar (Thuja plicata), an evergreen coniferous tree in the cypress family, native to the northwestern USA and south-western Canada. Some of these trees have a wood volume up to 500 cub m and the timbers are extremely durable, but soft, and mostly used for cladding, windows, doors and joinery.
“We’ve also used redwood, Douglas fir and hemlock, but there’s not a painted surface anywhere; all clear finishes, oils and varnishes,” Roger said.
Externally, when Roger first built the home in 1983, he applied a natural colour primary paint finish and then re-applied another coat seven years later. Recently, he gave the cladding a complete make-over using a self-priming, low sheen acrylic.
“Using pure, premium grade timbers in situations designed to cherish them and then finishing them correctly will give you something you won’t ever want to change – one that’s easy to live in, easy to care for, environmentally sympathetic and mellows with you,” he said.
Roger was aware that the timbers used to build his home held no environmental threats. And there was something about the thought of timber that really suited the great open space of his block and the gum trees growing on it.
“I couldn’t think of a nicer way to enrich our environment. And to this day, I often re-live my absolute amazement at the initial design and the extremely well-thought-out creative rationale behind it. The idea of using nature and natural products to build a place that’s never too warm, never too cold, simply amazed me.”
Editor’s note: Now retired, Roger Denley’s long experience in timber has included senior positions with Tilling Timber in NSW and Queensland and Timbeck Architectural, 40 km north of Brisbane.
