Cedar
Characteristics & Benefits
Consider
these scenarios:
- The
patio has been in the sun all afternoon. You have just gotten
home from work and would like to relax on the patio. What would
you most want to relax on? Plastic? Aluminum? Wrought
Iron? Or Wood? Wood does not absorb the heat that plastic,
aluminum and wrought iron do. (See Thermal
Diffusivity below)
- You
have just gotten home from work. It has been windy all
day and you would like to relax on the patio, however, when you arrive
at your patio your plastic and aluminum patio furniture has blown up
against the fence or has completely disappeared! Wood furniture
is still safely in place. The inexpensive
plastic or aluminum furniture cannot compete with real wood!
- View
your patio in your mind's eye, picture it first with a high
quality plastic dining set, now picture it with the smooth, beautiful,
visual depth of cedar. Can you "feel" the difference?
- Western
Redcedar
furniture can be found in a variety of styles. A simple
but comfortable style is usually best. Remember that the higher
price is not always indicative of better quality.
Characteristics
& Benefits:
- Western
Redcedar (Thuja plicata) is a softwood that grows in the Pacific
Northwest and along the coast to Alaska.
- The
heartwood is reddish or pinkish brown to dull brown.
The sapwood is nearly white. The wood is usually straight-grained
with a uniform but somewhat coarse texture. It has low shrinkage
and is lightweight.
- The
heartwood is very resistant to decay.
- Wood
has a natural thermal diffusivity;
meaning that it is slow to absorb heat from its surroundings. This
causes wood to not feel extremely hot or cold to the touch. The
thermal diffusivity of wood is much lower than that of other structural
materials , such as metal, brick and stone, because of the low thermal
conductivity and moderate density and heat capacity of wood.
References:
Wood
Handbook, Wood as an Engineering Material; U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Forest
Service, Forest Products Laboratory
Misc. other resources