Timber is a striking element of contemporary architecture. However, buying such products without any knowledge can be extremely daunting. Gunns Timber Products manages more than 275,000 hectares of plantation forests and shares its expertise here
Gunn’s species selection:
Hardwood
Australian Victorian Ash
This Australian species, otherwise known as
Mountain Ash (Eucalyptus regnans) or Alpine
Ash (Eucalyptus delegatensis), is pale pink to
pale straw in colour. It demonstrates good
workability and produces an excellent finish. It can
be used in all forms of construction, furniture and
home fitout, particularly flooring and structural
applications. It has good staining qualities,
allowing it to be matched to other timbers.
Victorian Ash has a hardness rating of 4.9kd
(seasoned) and a strength group when seasoned
of SD3 and SD4.
Australian Jarrah
Known as one of the “harder” species of
the range, Jarrah is primarily dark to reddish
brown in colour with some natural variations.
It has an open grain, slightly interlocked, at
times displaying figure. Because of Jarrah’s
natural durability, it’s very suitable as a
decking product for the outdoors or as a
classy interior floor or decorative product.
Jarrah is relatively easy to work with using
ordinary woodworking tools and is generally
known as durable and termite-resistant. It has
a Janka hardness rating of 8.5kn (seasoned).
Australian Tasmanian Oak
Otherwise known as Eucalyptus delegatensis,
Eucalyptus obliqua and Eucalyptus regnans,
Tasmanian Oak is light in colour, varying from
straw to reddish brown with intermediate
shades of cream to pink. Similar to Victorian
Ash, it demonstrates good workability and
produces an excellent finish. It is commonly
used in flooring and other decorative products,
such as architraves, skirtings and mouldings,
and also some structural hardwood products.
It has good staining qualities, allowing it to be
matched to other timbers. Tasmanian Oak has
a Janka hardness rating of 5.7kd (seasoned) and
a strength group when seasoned of SD3 and SD4.
Also available is a number of other hardwood species such as myrtle, marri and blackwood.
Softwood
Australian Pine
Kiln-dried Radiata Pine is relatively stable with
minimal shrinkage, checking and warp in normal
protected service conditions. With its ability to
be treated for external use and termite resistance,
Radiata Pine can be used for structural, architectural,
landscaping and decking purposes. This species has
resistance to fungi and insects in its seasoned state
with good nail-holding power and acceptance of
preservative and finishing treatment. Radiata Pine
is easy to work with and dress, stain, glue, saw, plane,
cut, nail, drill and screw with ordinary hand tools.
