Love your timber

In recent years, the natural beauty of cedar and other timbers has made them a popular cladding choice. But beauty requires maintenance. Brad Richards from Timber Love explains the importance of timber care.

There are many beautiful new timber-clad homes in Aotearoa New Zealand. North American western red cedar is often preferred for its longevity, but there are now a lot of local timbers available that look similar such as macrocarpa, larch and abodo.

Sadly, it’s not hard to find timber homes just a few years old looking weathered with discolouration, silvering, mould or lichen, warping or cupping of timber boards, or nails revealed by splitting or cracking timber. 

Brad Richards of Timber Love says, “Everyone is led to believe that there is very little maintenance in cedar, but that timber look comes with a huge amount of maintenance. When the timber shrinks and cracks, water can get in and it deteriorates much quicker.”

While cedar boards arrive onsite already machine coated, by the time the build is completed they need a second coat of oil. Brad says, “Within a year or year and a half, they will need re-oiling and then the same the next year and then you can stagger it out to three and then five years." 

Areas exposed to the elements fade the fastest. Hillside homes and those exposed to the sun are the most susceptible. Brad’s own hillside cedar home has been coated with black oil, which is the fastest fading colour. “The back of our house doesn’t fade, but the front side has been re-oiled four or five times in five years,” says Brad.

BEFORE

AFTER

Brad, who also has a long-established building business, started Timber Love with his wife Amanda, thanks to good relationships with previous home-build clients looking to maintain their timber cladding, decking, fences and cedar garage doors. 

“After doing so much maintenance on our own places and just seeing how much of these cedar homes were going up, it’s an expensive cladding, and it makes sense to look after it properly,” says Brad.

Without cleaning before re-oiling or staining, dust and dirt get locked in. These soft timbers need careful washing and can be easily damaged. 

Brad generally recommends a penetrating oil that soaks in rather than stain, which is a surface coating. But he notes that wood oils will not penetrate through existing coatings of stain. 

With a team of painters specialising in timber restoration, the Timber Love team can complete cleaning and re-oiling of the average two-storey cedar-clad house in around one week. 

The Timber Love maintenance programme helps homeowners and commercial customers revitalise their timber to ensure beauty and longevity. 

0800 888 713 | timberlove.co.nz