Guide to heat-treated wood cladding

Aesthetic and durable, heat-treated wood cladding is the ideal solution for all architectural projects: covering a wall, cladding part of a building or an entire façade, protecting an extension or changing the appearance of a building.

Durable and environmentally-friendly, it gives wood a decorative and functional edge. Want to find out more about heat-stabilised wood cladding? In this guide, you'll find heat treatment techniques, the benefits of heat-treated wood cladding, maintenance advice, the cost of heat-treated wood cladding and examples of projects. Follow our wood expert on a tour of heat-treated wood cladding.

Key points to remember: 

• Heat-treated cladding is wood cladding that has been heated to a high temperature to make it more stable and resistant. 
• It is an eco-friendly alternative to exotic woods and chemically treated wood cladding, ideal for a durable and environmentally friendly exterior facade.
• The key advantages of thermally treated wood cladding:  increased durability in harsh weather conditions, natural resistance to fungi and insects, enhanced dimensional stability, and a warm, long-lasting appearance.
• Maintenance of heat-treated wood cladding: without a finish, heat-treated wood will naturally gray. To preserve its original color, applying a saturator is recommended after a few years of exposure.

Definition of "heat-treated wood

Heat-treated wood cladding is an environmentally-friendly alternative to exotic wood cladding or autoclave wood cladding that has undergone chemical treatment.

Heat-treated wood is wood that has been heated to a high temperature in order to improve its technical characteristics and make it rot-proof. But why change the natural characteristics of wood by heating it?

There are many different types of wood. For exterior use, and more specifically for facades such as wooden cladding, the natural durability varies from one species to another. The heat treatment process can improve the characteristics of certain less durable woods.

Heat treatment techniques for cladding wood

The technique for treating wood with heat is simple:

• The wood is gradually heated to a high temperature, alternating an increase in temperature with phases of rewetting;
• The treatment is carried out without chemicals;
• The finished product is unique and has a brown tint in the mass;
• This thermal process gives the boards exceptional stability and durability.

At Sivalbp, we've always had the know-how to use an environmentally-friendly thermal process that will guarantee the durability and stability of your wood cladding over time.

Wood is a living material and is subject to variations in size depending on the season and the geographical area.

Heat-treated wood cladding has the advantage of preserving the wood's intrinsic properties, while improving its dimensional stability and resistance to attack by fungi and xylophagous insects, the main pests of wood. Rain, snow or sun, your heat-treated wood cladding becomes more resistant to the elements.

Choosing to clad a façade in thermally-heated wood offers a number of significant advantages. Here are the most important:

Heat-treated wood: environmentally-friendly cladding

Heat-treated wood cladding is environmentally-friendly wood cladding. The wood heat-stabilisation process is a 100% natural and eco-responsible process that does not use any chemicals. At Sivalbp, our heat-treated wood cladding is manufactured and heat-stabilised in the heart of the Alps from PEFC-certified wood.

Heat-treated wood: more durable quality cladding

More durable and weather-resistant, heat-treated wood will adapt to all climatic conditions and is an ecological response to current climate change. Heat-treated or heat-heated wood cladding is more dimensionally stable. There's less risk of warping, and the wood cladding strips retain their original shape.

Heat-treated wood: easy-care cladding

The heat-treatment process gives wood cladding boards greater aesthetic durability, so they can withstand the ravages of time. Once saturated, heat-treated wood cladding is easy to maintain.

Heat-treated wood cladding gives wood cladding an attractive, warm-toned colour. Over time, under the effect of sun and rain, the wood gradually turns a silvery grey. Follow our advice on caring for heat-treated wood.

Preservation treatments for maximum durability

Even if heat-treated wood is exceptionally resistant, wood cladding is always more resistant and durable if it is treated at the factory with a preservative and a finish such as a saturator.

Protect wood with a saturator

Over time, heat-treated wood cladding, like all wood, naturally greys. If you want to keep its original brown colour when you install it, saturated heat-treated wood cladding is the ideal solution for maximum aesthetic durability.

At Sivalbp, we've been experts in the heat-stabilisation process for cladding since the company was founded.  We offer a range of EcoThermo wood cladding products and a choice of finishes to suit your interior or exterior cladding project. Our quality products, made in France, guarantee aesthetic durability while being environmentally friendly. Contact us today.

The price of heat-treated or thermo-treated wood is lower than that of exotic wood or Western Red Cedar. However, the process of heat-treating wood inevitably entails an additional cost for the species processed. The price of heat-treated wood cladding will therefore be higher than that of wood cladding without heat treatment, such as Douglas fir or spruce cladding. Despite the higher cost, heat-treated wood cladding will give you better aesthetic durability over time compared with non-thermally treated wood cladding, which is less durable over time.

With global warming, building systems are increasingly vulnerable and subject to extreme phenomena (wide variations in temperature). Thanks to the process of heat-treating wood, cladding boards are more resistant and adapt more easily to extreme climatic conditions.  Heat-treated wood cladding offers you the following benefits:

• An eco-responsible thermostabilisation process
• Excellent dimensional stability
• Aesthetic durability
• Reduced resin pockets
• Excellent resistance to different climatic conditions
• A range of saturants to suit every project.

At Sivalbp, we've developed a range of heat-treated wood cladding and panelling to suit all your interior and exterior architectural projects. For our wood cladding and panelling, we have chosen species from Scandinavia.  Nordic Pine for our cladding and Nordic Spruce for our panelling. Our Sivalbp heat-stabilisation process enhances the durability of our wood cladding and panelling.

Our heat-treated pine timber is available in our Elegance, New Age, Vintage and Authentic timber cladding ranges. Our Nordic Spruce thermo-treated wood panelling is available in our Fahrenheit range.

Here are some examples of Sivalbp heat-treated wood cladding and panelling.