Xtend Garden Building
Aftercare
2. Weatherproofing Your Garden Room
1. Protecting Against Rot
XTEND GARDEN BUILDING AFTERCARE
After your Xtend garden building has been built there are a number of actions that need to be completed to
ensure it is rot proof, weatherproof and water tight. Carrying out these steps will ensure your Xtend garden
building is durable and long lasting.
Below provides details on the following tasks and the best way to accomplish these tasks.
1.
Treating your Xtend garden building against rot.
2.
Applying a weatherproofing finish to the Xtend garden building.
3.
Interior finishes and electrics.
Your Xtend garden building needs to be protected from moisture, and to a lesser extent, the sun’s UV rays.
Timber will constantly try to reach a moisture content equilibrium with its surrounding environment causing
the cells of the wood to continually expand and contract. In addition, any untreated timber exposed to rain,
or water in general, can expand rapidly. This constant movement leads to issues such as twisting, warping,
splitting, bowing, cupping, and many more potential problems. In fact the largest percentage of timber related
issues are directly linked to movement.
UV rays from the sun break down lignin in the surface cells of timber causing it to go a grey colour, this doesn’t
harm the timber in any way but it does look unsightly. A good quality exterior timber finish must be applied to
the exterior of your garden room which offers protection from the extremes of our climate throughout the UK.
The 2 most common types of high quality exterior wood finish are penetrating finish and film finish.
Your Xtend garden building comes in an untreated form, (except for the bearers which do come wrapped
in DPC as they are in direct contact with the ground); therefore the correct treatment application for your
building is required as soon as possible, ideally straightaway once your Xtend garden building is built.
For the exterior treatment we recommend the use of a solvent based preservative such as Barrattine
Preserver as it is slower drying than water based alternatives, ensuring better penetration of the surface
layers of the timber.
Start the treatment process by
applying a minimum of two coats
of preservative to the exterior of your
garden building.
Ensure you treat the ends of the T&G panels
to prevent any moisture being soaked up.
Preservative contains substances that will prevent the build up of fungi, mildew, and wood boring insects.
Some of these fungi are potentially very harmful to your Xtend garden building, causing it to rot.
The interior floor, walls and roof can be treated with a suitable interior treatment later, once the Xtend
garden building has been built. Additionally you can provide laminate flooring once treatment has been
completed.
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