Whenever you’re thinking about building a house, the best material you can lay your hands on is timber. As a cost-efficient material, timber has several characteristics that make it ideal for outdoor projects and structures. It provides long-lasting performance and an extremely natural appearance, based on the type and grade of timber you’ve chosen. One of the most sought-after timber types is the KVH timber. Why? Let’s find out!
What is KVH Timber?
Konstruktionsvollholz or KVH is a solid structural sawn construction finger-jointed timber that is made from spruce softwood and typically used in modern constructions. If you get in touch with reputable Sweden sawmills, you can also get your hands on other softwood types like pine for areas that are not directly exposed to the weather, on special request. KVH has precisely specified dimensions and high-quality control to meet the requirements of all three parties involved in a project – homeowners, designers, and craftsmen.
Benefits of Opting for KVH Timber
A home construction project warrants a solid and reliable timber frame that utilizes wood studs and rails put together along with a sheathing board to create steady structural support. This ultimately creates a timber home with a structural frame that consists of beams and large posts that are joined with pegs. Some of the major benefits of opting for KVH timber include:
- Kiln Dried Wood: The drying process of wood ensures that the material remains at a 15% ± 3% moisture level. Freshly cut wood, in comparison, has around 50 to 70% of water present in it. Now, if you purchase damp wood, you are ultimately exposing it to weakness and distortion. The excess water starts evaporating as soon as it is exposed to a high temperature, thereby reducing the volume of the wood and deforming it in the process. With kiln-dried wood, you get assured good-quality wood with a decent moisture content that wouldn’t harm the durability and usability of the material. The KVH is cut free-of-heart or split-heart to minimize any twisting or cracking. As you use KVH in your construction, you wouldn’t have to worry about discolouration, insect damage, warping or even twisting.
- Impregnated Wood: KVH is both kiln dried and impregnated. Through the impregnation process, you get a modified version of the wood with enhanced natural properties. Such impregnation resins are designed to go inside wood cell walls to increase the hardness, strength, resistance to decay, and dimensional stability of the material, thereby making it long-lasting.
- Certified Wood: The KVH structural timber is calibrated, sorted, and has defined dimensions with load-bearing capacities for non-visible and visible areas. When you compare it with the traditional sawn Holz, KVH has much stricter requirements. The grading of the same happens in accordance with German standard DIN 4074-01 and EN 14081 (strength grading). The compliance, thereafter, is monitored by popular third-party quality inspection companies. The typical Grading class for KVH structural timber (S10 TS) corresponds to the European C24 strength class, as defined by the European standard EN 1912.
- Varied Range of Options: The best part about opting for Konstruktionsvollholz is that it comes in a wide range of sizes and design options. Based on your requirements, you get them in different colours, styles, textures, shapes, designs, and sizes from reputable sawmills. All you need to do is have the specific requirements in mind and get in touch with the made-to-measure wood suppliers or the same.
- Distinct Surface Qualities: KVH typically comes in two types of surface qualities – the KVH-Si for the visible or exposed structures and the KVH-NSi for the non-visible or non-exposed structures, in lengths that range up to 16 meters. Both these types come barely visible finger-jointed in colour neutral adhesives to ensure the natural look of the surface remains unharmed. For the visible applications, there are a few limits set that include knot condition, size, and width of ingrown bark and cracks.
The requirements set on the KVH timber quality typically exceed the traditional requirements in the EU grading regulations and aim to achieve a defined visual appearance and reliable strength values. KVH is bonded using formaldehyde-free adhesives, making them safe and highly sustainable products. As an importer, the only thing you need to ensure is getting the KVH timber from a well-known exporter who guarantees good-quality products.
Timber Exchange is a one-of-a-kind supply chain automation platform that brings under one umbrella the three pillars of the timber industry – sawmills, importers, and freight forwarders.