New Zealand Clearwood

Natural:

NZ Clearwood is sourced from plantation grown Pinus radiata trees in New Zealand.  The result is a natural wood product from a renewable resource.

Sustainable:

NZ Clearwood comes from trees grown in sustainably managed plantation forests.  Increasingly, more of the forest is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and much of the processing is based on energy sources derived from the wood resource itself.  Producing a diversified range of products from this natural and sustainable resource significantly enhances its overall sustainability.

Advanced:

NZ Clearwood has under gone many years of development including genetic improvement by selected breeding, advanced forest management, cost effective and efficient harvesting and supply logistics, and advanced wood processing.  This provides a wood resource with superior yield and characteristics suitable for a wide variety of products.

General Characteristics

Wood and Timber Quality:

The quality of wood and timber is influenced by a range of factors and conditions including genetic selection, forest management, site characteristics, and timber processing.  Quality characteristics that may be affected are density, strength, colour, dimensional stability, bending and twisting, grain patterns and knots, the development of checks (splits within the timber) and permeability.  Other quality factors include resin bleeding on the surface of boards, resin pockets, needle fleck and  boards not processed correctly. Verda branded products use timber with minimal defects.

NZ Clearwood and durability

NZ Clearwood is sourced from Radiata pine, a softwood species which is not naturally durable.  However, radiata pine has favourable properties among softwood species which allow it to be readily treated, in particular the sapwood.  This makes radiata easy to treat with timber protection chemicals that have low environmental impact but impart effective durability for over 50 years.

NZ Clearwood will decay rapidly if it is not treated with timber protection chemicals.  Verda uses low environmental impact formulations that eliminate the use of chromium and arsenic.

NZ Clearwood for outdoor use

To effectively use NZ Clearwood outdoors, it is critical that the timber is treated.  Its use outdoor can be further enhanced by applying surface coatings such as paints or stains.  Coatings greatly reduce the deterioration, discoloration and the loosening of surface fibres which occurs due to the combined effect of wind rain and sun.  Coatings will also minimize the impact of staining molds and make timber surfaces easier to keep clean. Verda uses a proprietary stain and oil system to add further protection its timbers.

NZ Clearwood and drying

NZ Clearwood is one of the easiest wood species to dry largely due to the high permeability of the sapwood.  Drying of NZ Clearwood, increases its stability, allows it to be treated, as it removes the water from the cells, reduces its weight, and reduces its susceptibility to decay.  NZ Clearwood typically undergoes two drying processes, one before timber treatment (to allow effective treatment with preservative) and a re-dry after treatment to enhance the dimensional stability of treated products, improve the appearance of the timber and to pre-condition it prior to applying coatings.

NZ Clearwood and machining

NZ Clearwood has ideal properties for machining including planning, shaping, and turning.  Other machining activities are cross cutting, boring, mortising, and sanding.  NZ Clearwood characteristics that make it suitable for machining are its moderate density (typically 350 kg/m3 for early wood and 550 kg/m3 for late wood), its small variation in density within its growth rings and gradual transition  from early to late wood.

When NZ Clearwood is used outdoors, it is preferable to treat the timber with protection chemicals after machining processes as this eliminates the generation of treated woodwaste.  However, for many precision or high performance applications this is not feasible and treatment is undertaken prior to machining to ensure that the timber maintains its exact dimensions.

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NZ Clearwood gluing and laminating

NZ Clearwood can be easily glued to create larger piece sizes, beams, panels and special grain finishes and patterns.  Gluing and laminating can be used for external uses and  is compatible with treating with timber protection chemicals.

NZ Clearwood is susceptible to shrinkage and swelling due to the uptake and loss of water from the wood structure.  This can make joining and end butting of timber difficult unless allowance is made for this potential movement to occur or the ends of timber are sealed.  The ends and jointing of timber structures are susceptible to cracking and splitting unless the water is kept out of the timber by sealing or corners are protected by flashings.