Let us tell you more about the cladding we use on our Garden Rooms

When Outside In was formed, we clad all of our garden rooms in Siberian Larch. Sadly due to the Ukraine conflict, this lovely timber cladding was understandably removed from the market and we all had to source an alternative product that offered as close a visual style, robustness and was obviously FSC certified.

To this end most Garden Room firms now clad in Thermowood, primarily a Scandinavian Redwood which has been thermally modified using just heat and steam, which enhances the wood throughout, not just the outer surface. Thermowood boards are stable and durable in every sense and will gradually silver down over time. Primarily, we use what's called "rough sawn" thermowood to provide a more rustic feel as with the example above. 

An alterntative to this is a sawn finished product which is a far smoother finish that really brings out the grain in the timber.
As an alternative to the natural timber look, we also clad with specially coated timbers, to order. Not all clients want to go through the natural weathering process with timber, therefore we appreciate the importance of offering something different.

We work closely with selected partners to offer just such options. Russwoods provide stunning examples of claddings, pre treated in their factory to provide a stunning, treated, uniformed finish, on FSC certified timbers.

The example below is from the lovely Russwood Ltd in Newtonmore who we've worked with since forming the business. The cladding used is their Abodo Vulcan treated in SiOOx Mid Grey (sawn finish) and applied with a shadow gap as with all of our rooms.We also created a beautiful gate from the same cladding, to create a seamless attachement to the house. This example is also a Russwood timber,factory coated in Minchin Grey. As with all of our rooms, we fix our cladding on with a shadow gap as opposed to tongue and groove style. This allows the timbers to expand/contract in all weathers and displays an alternative look to the more traditional tongue and groove.

What happens to the timber cladding over time? 

Thermowood (and larch) is a natural timber product that will weather over time. We always advise treating timber cladding with Osmo Oil to protect against the elements but above is an example of cladding one year on. 

Below is an example of Thermowood cladding before and immediately after Osmo application. The timber initially appears much darker but will settle back down to the lovely warm timber colouring.