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Northern
White Cedar Eliminates Shrinkage, Settling,
Twisting and Checking problems!
Twisting and Checking problems!
Northern
White Cedar Facts
Chemically Treated Pine and Your Health
Shrinkage
is another issue that makes Cedar the smart choice for your new log home.
Typically pine logs will have 18-20 growth rings. This means that it took
the pine tree 18-20 years to grow. In comparison, a cedar log of the same
diameter can have over 100 growth rings! This means that the cedar tree took
over 100 years to grow! The rapid growth of the pine tree means that the tree
has a lot of moisture content. When the pine trees are milled into logs for
a log home they will continue to loose moisture that results in some serious
shrinking, settling, twisting and excessive checking or cracking. Checking
is also severe when the pine logs are "Kiln Dried". Cedar on the other hand,
because it is a much slower growing tree, has a very different molecular structure.
It has very little moisture content making it one of the least shrinking of
all wood species. Our log homes do not have the shrinking and settling problems
that are so common with pine log homes. Pine companies have made many different
attempts to allow for the excessive shrinkage and settling of their log walls
which can cause many problems. Everything from threaded thru bolts with springs
or turn screw devices that have to be adjusted as time goes by to large twisted
spikes or lag screws that hopefully will hold everything together. With Northern
White Cedar, none of these radical methods are necessary and you can be assured
that your new cedar log home will remain just as air tight and solid as it
was the day it was built.
From Log Homes Illustrated magazine - "Rapidly grown trees that exhibit fewer than four to six annual increments per inch of radius growth will have a larger percentage of juvenile wood (wood of overall lower quality) than do trees of the same diameter that grow at a slower rate. Juvenile wood is often the cause of abnormal warping and lowered wood strength.......in addition, wood from fast-growing, vigorous trees often has many large knots."
From Log Homes Illustrated magazine - "Rapidly grown trees that exhibit fewer than four to six annual increments per inch of radius growth will have a larger percentage of juvenile wood (wood of overall lower quality) than do trees of the same diameter that grow at a slower rate. Juvenile wood is often the cause of abnormal warping and lowered wood strength.......in addition, wood from fast-growing, vigorous trees often has many large knots."
