Durable Wood sees upturn for terrace solution

The dense, hardwood is winning over customers.

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Durable Wood Products (DWP) is seeing an upturn in business in the last few years as the word is spreading among contractors about the uses of hardwood in both residential and industrial projects.

The company provides dense, hardwood from Guyana for a multitude of applications and is making its market on some of the most innovative new-builds in the region.

Turada Hardwood Shingles and Turada Greenheart are two such products, and Nakulan Raghu, regional sales manager, says the message is getting through, with work continuing to provide covering for 62 villas in the Al Gurm Island residential project.

These are completely independent villas on the road going from Abu Dhabi to Musharref,” he told CW. “This is one of the biggest orders, we have also supplied the wood for the decorative elements of the bridge between Abu Dhabi and Al Gurm Island.” The company has been involved with the project since 2007.

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DWP came in contact with the Aldar Properties development through a conversation with the contractor, Six Construct. Raghu explains that the company was originally going to use a local wood for the terrace and was not aware of Turada.

“We met with the senior architect and gave all the information about Shingles and Greenheart, and they were impressed by the quality of the wood. So this is being used on a roof on the terrace,” he said.

The hardwood can be used for coverings, roofs and floorings, among others, and does not need any treatment – even for sea water applications.

Raghu argues that using wood on a roof can be more energy efficient for villas than the regional norm of clay tiles.

“We see a lot of villas using clay tiles on the roof that absorb a lot of heat in the summer and make the house very hot even though they look good,” he said. “The shingles make the house cooler inside, and so reduce energy costs as you don’t need air conditioning so high. The product also has a 30-year warranty.

"We also have some wood for flooring, which is the same Greenheart wood, as well as decking, pontoons and for boardwalks. For our other wood we might recommend US products for coatings, there are a lot of companies providing this in the region, though we’ve not seen the result of their woods after a few years.”

He says the company supplies timber to ports, providing the fenders that ships to come in contact with. He counts Saudi Aramco among the company’s clients for projects such as these.