Composite building materials have been around since people first started mixing straw and mud to make bricks.
And never have we needed them more.
As we confront the critical challenge of living sustainably, we need composite material manufacturers to come up with high quality products that will take the pressure off traditional materials.
The average house, for instance, uses about 50 trees and takes about six months to build.
But those trees take a long time to mature – more than 30 years in the case of softwoods, 40 years for hardwoods and 75 to 80 years for more exotic timbers like Merbau. How can our forests keep up?
Fortunately, composite material manufacturers like Futurewood are rising to the challenge.
Futurewood is manufactured from recycled polyolefin (plastic from post industrial waste), rice husks and recycled hardwood. It’s made to look like timber, and is ideal for cladding, fencing, decks and a variety of community and commercial projects.
It also has a number of inherent advantages over traditional timber products. For a start it doesn’t need painting or staining and is virtually maintenance free. It doesn’t cup, warp or twist, and resists rotting, white ants and termites.
And when you take into account the savings in initial and ongoing maintenance, products like CleverDeck decking and EnviroSlat fencing and cladding make real economic as well as environmental sense.
Futurewood is one manufacturer that’s taking the pressure off our natural timber resources. Leaving the real thing where it belongs – in the forests.
