Which Wood Is Best for Kitchen Cabinets? A Buyer's Guide
The kitchen is the toughest room in the house for wood: steam, heat swings, and doors opening thousands of times a year. Choosing right starts with knowing these three stresses.
Timber Cladding: Durability, Maintenance, and the Real Cost
A wood facade is beautiful and not expensive — if you calculate the cost over ten years, not per square metre. What to know before you decide.
When a client asks, "How much does a wood facade cost?", a price per square metre is misleading. Wood cladding is the one exterior material whose cost you pay over its lifetime, not all at once during installation. The right decision starts right here.
Three things that determine the facade's lifespan
- A ventilated substructure. Air must flow behind the boards. Cladding fixed directly onto a solid surface traps moisture and ruins any wood — even thermally modified wood — long before its time.
- Corrosion-resistant fixings. Galvanized screws react with acidic wood and leave dark stains around the holes. Stainless steel costs more, and it isn't optional.
- Edge and end-grain detailing. A cut end of wood soaks up water like a straw. Every on-site cut has to be sealed where it's made.
Which wood?
For exterior use, thermally modified wood is the standard choice: heat treatment lowers the wood's affinity for water and removes the food source that fungi and insects need, without introducing any chemical into the wood. In exchange it becomes somewhat more brittle, so every screw needs a pre-drilled pilot hole, and it isn't suited to load-bearing members. Natural wood is also an option, but its maintenance cycle is shorter.
A wood facade isn't expensive; an unmaintained wood facade is.
Installation direction and prevailing rain
Vertical boards shed water faster and their joints hold less of it; horizontal boards look more striking, but every joint is a potential groove where water can sit. If you want a horizontal facade, the profile needs a drip-edge slope. The prevailing rain direction at the site matters too: the side that takes the most driving rain is the first to need refinishing, and it's worth scheduling separately in the maintenance plan.
Height above ground is another small detail with a big effect: the lowest board needs enough clearance from the soil and any water-collecting surface, or splashback and rising damp will ruin the work in just those first few centimetres.
How to calculate the cost
The right comparison is a ten-year cost comparison: the initial price, plus refinishing every few years, plus the percentage of boards replaced over that period. Seen this way, the cheaper upfront option is usually the most expensive one in the end — the same logic that applies to choosing cabinet wood.
A second point that's often missed in estimates: access. Refinishing a fifth-floor facade means scaffolding or a lift, and that cost can sometimes exceed the paint itself. If the building is tall, a longer-lasting, pricier finish pays for itself from day one.
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Wood Facade Patterns: Vertical, Horizontal, or Mixed?
The installation pattern of wood facade cladding isn't just a style choice; it affects how water behaves, how much upkeep it needs, and even how big the facade looks.