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7 articles
Trapping damp against a board is one of the quickest ways to shorten its life. Here’s how to build a proper air gap behind cladding, shed walls, fence rails and linings — with battens, spacers and fixings that let UK weather pass through instead of settling in.
A moisture meter is a useful tool, but it is not the first thing a woodyard hand reaches for. Here is how tapping, smell and weight can tell you whether a board is sound, damp or hiding a surprise — and where those low-tech checks stop.
Local is one of the most overworked words in timber. Here is what British grown, imported and reclaimed stock actually mean in practice, how each behaves once it is on your site, and how to choose without buying the brochure.
The boards get the attention, but the substructure decides whether a deck stays solid or turns into a wobbly, soggy problem. Here is how to think about joists, bearers, gaps and airflow for a British garden.
Every job leaves a pile of usable offcuts, and every pile is a small test of judgement. Here’s how to sort, store and reuse leftover timber so it becomes a resource rather than a damp corner of the garage.
Most UK fence posts do not fail in a dramatic way. They rot quietly at the wet line just above the soil, where water, air and soil life do their worst. Here is what to look for before you buy posts that only look heavy duty.
Damp does not ruin timber overnight. It does it slowly, quietly and expensively. Here is how we would stack, cover and check stock before the wet UK winter gets into it.