Timber, or lumber, is wood cut and dressed for use as a structural and finishing building material, one of architecture's oldest and most widespread resources, used for framing, roofing, flooring and cladding wherever forests provided a ready supply. Softwoods such as pine, fir and spruce dominate structural framing for their straight grain and relatively low cost, while hardwoods such as oak and teak have historically been favored for load-bearing timber frames, joinery and finish work for their greater density and durability. Timber's renewability, workability with hand and powered tools, and favorable strength-to-weight ratio have kept it central to vernacular and engineered construction alike, from medieval European timber-framed houses to Japanese post-and-beam temples and the balloon-framed houses of nineteenth-century North America.
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Its halls are timber-frame construction on stone platforms, the load carried by wooden columns and dougong brackets rather than the walls.
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Wikimedia FoundationWikipedia: LumberQuote, Wikipedia: Lumber
Lumber, also called timber or fine wood in the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand, is wood that has been processed into uniform and useful sizes, including beams and planks or boards.
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