What is Timber and What is it Used For?

Timber is a term that has several connotations and in many regions of the world is used synonymously with the term lumber. Most often, timber refers to either unfelled trees or trees that have been harvested which retain their bark or other characteristics for aesthetic purposes.

This article will address some of the most common uses of timber, which includes the creation of dimensional lumber products. To learn more about how timber and lumber are differentiated, see our article on Lumber vs. Timber. To understand more about the grades of different hardwoods and softwoods, review our guide on lumber grades.

Timber as a Material

Timber is a versatile raw material that offers several advantages, enabling it to be used in a wide range of applications. Among these advantages are the following:

Timber is a renewable resource and is grown in countries around the globe. This broad availability reduces the amount of transportation needed, allowing the material to be used closer to where it is produced.
Timber has a fast growth rate with softwood varieties able to replenish at a faster rate than hardwoods.
Timber does not require a great deal of energy for it to be produced into a useable form, relative to other material such as steel which requires furnaces operating at high temperature as part of the process.
Timber stores the excess carbon that is removed from the atmosphere and continues to do so or the duration of its existence.
Timber is a natural material, is non-toxic, is safe to handle, and does not produce hazardous vapors when cut or machined.
Timber is easy to harvest and can be managed effectively to assure regrowth and replenishment.
Timber is easy to handle, cut, and shape with readily available tools, lending to its ability to have widespread use.
Its scrap or waste products can be repurposed so that there is little to no unused material from a given cut of timber.
It has aesthetic appeal and can be stained, painted, or coated to produce a wide variety of finishes.
Softwood timber is relatively inexpensive, making it suitable for wide use as a building and construction material.
The material has relatively high strength and can be designed into configurations that function as load-bearing supports.
Timber has good thermal insulating properties and can reduce the energy use of homes when the material is used in doors and windows.
When properly dried as part of the processing of harvested wood, timber is not subject to fungal degradation, and the removal of excess moisture reduces the weight of the material, making it less expensive to transport and easier to handle.
Timber construction is simpler and faster than with the use of stone or concrete.
Timber is durable, can last centuries, and is easier to maintain than other materials.

Common Uses of Timber

The following paragraphs summarize the common uses of timber as a material.

As a Fuel Source

Timber is an important source of fuel, where its combustion can be used to heat homes, provide energy for cooking food, and heat water for domestic use. Wood pellets and other remnants of the timber processing such as biomass are shipped and may be used as a convenient form of wood-based fuel to be used in stoves or heaters. Some estimates suggest that up to 40% of all the timber harvested from forests worldwide is ultimately consumed as a fuel source. The use of timber as fuel will vary from region to region, depending on the availability of other fuel sources such as oil, natural gas, electricity, and renewables such as wind and solar power.

Timber can also be used as a fuel source to power boilers which heat water to produce steam and drive generators to create electrical power.

Construction Materials

Timber is transformed into a wide range of construction materials that are used in building and home construction. This includes dimensional lumber products that are built into walls, floors, and ceilings, such as:

Studs
Plates
Joists
Rafters
Beams
Firebreaks
Supports

Timber also is used along with adhesives to generate sheets of plywood to function as sheathing, or for the creation of Oriented Strand Boards (OSB), veneer panels, or Structural Insulated Panels(SIPs). Timber also can be fabricated into structurally engineered wood products that are suitable for sustaining high loads, substituting for other materials such as steel I-beams. Timber is also fabricated into architectural or custom woodwork as well as other architectural mouldings.

Furniture

Many hardwoods are valued for their higher density and the beauty of their natural grain patterns, making them the primary choice of material for cabinet and furniture makers. These woods are heavier and more durable, but also slower growing, therefore tend to be more expensive than softwoods. Oak, maple, walnut, cherry, and poplar are common choices for higher-end furniture. Less expensive softwoods used for furniture include pine, redwood, spruce, and cedar.

Scrap and waste material from mills such as wood shavings and sawdust are combined with adhesives to create chipboard, Light Density Fiberboard (LDF), Medium Density Fiberboard (MDF), and other wood products that can be used to make inexpensive wooden furniture sold and shipped as ready-to-assemble items or furniture parts.

Timber Beams

Timber is used in applications requiring the support of loads, including on docks, piers, jetties, railway or railroad track ties, or telephone and utility poles, for example. There is also widespread use in timber home construction, where the characteristic of this style is the use of timber that is generally greater than 5 inches in size. In some applications, the timber may be left in its natural state including tree bark for design or aesthetic reasons.

Other uses of timber include landscape timbers for retaining walls or other decorative purposes, and boat timbers, for cases where wooden boat construction is still valued.

Paper and Pulp

A wide variety of paper products are created using pulpwood from timber. Paper for books, magazines, newspapers, and other printed items like brochures, flyers, and marketing materials, as well as copy paper, envelope paper, kraft paper, parchment paper, packaging paper, and photographic paper all are ultimately derived from timber.

Other Uses

Timber also finds use in the creation of textile products such as rayon. The oils and other extracts from timber are used in the creation of products including paints, resins, and gum. Timber of lower grades is also used for the creation of wooden boxes and crates for shipping and storage.

Summary

Timber is a valued natural resource that serves directly as a material for use in construction, paper manufacturing, specialty wood products such as furniture, and as a fuel source. To explore other topics, consult our additional guides or visit the Thomas Supplier Discovery Platform to locate potential sources of supply or view details on specific products.