Everyone loves the warmth of exterior stained wood. The challenge with wood is always the maintenance. One solution for using wood on the exterior is to keep it out of the weather in places like the under-side of eaves or overhangs.
On this project we used a relatively new product that is quickly gaining popularity: thermally modified wood. Thermally modified wood is put through a thermal process that pushes the moisture out of the cells of the wood and hardens the cell walls to make the wood more durable over time and less susceptible to pests. This allows companies to offer an extended warranty on the wood even for exterior use.
Thermally modified wood is also more sustainable! This process can be applied to FSC (sustainably harvested) woods, relieving the pressures to harvest further ipe from our rainforests.
On this project, we used a vertical grain hemlock, which is beautifully consistent in color and grain. These photos don’t do it justice… it looks amazing!
