Yellow Balau is an exotic hardwood originating from Indonesia and Malaysia. It has become extremely popular in the UK for building garden furniture and decking. There are several reasons for this.
Installing a Yellow Balau decking or terrace is not easy, the wood is extremely hard and tightly grained which makes it heavy and not easy to manipulate, this may be a slight draw back when considering using it. However, this is one of the main draws of this particular timber. It is so solid, heavy and tightly grained, which means that it is incredibly hard wearing and durable. It will not be installed one day and then a year later have worn down, been weathered, or become rotten.
In terms of weathering, this wood is almost immune to it. It is so dense and solid that even left untreated will not need replacing within a matter of 5 years. The wood will remain the same colour if treated with oils and cleaners; it will also maintain its supple texture. The wood is very fine and smooth which means that it will be non-abrasive. It does not become rough and abrasive after being outside for a few years. The wood will remain the way it was at the time of installation.
The colour of the wood closely relates to Cedar and it means you get the overall appearance and beauty of the Cedar, without having to use a Soft wood and being unable to enjoy it for years to come. Cedar is extremely soft and even with minimum foot traffic it is extremely susceptible to weathering and everyday wear-and-tear. Whereas discussed above, the Balau is not going to see any of this happen due to the solidity of the grain.
Another benefit of Yellow Balau is its seamless finish. It is a very consistent grain and there are almost no knots, this makes the finish of the wood absolutely flawless. The grain runs smoothly in one direction, uninterrupted by circular knots which are especially characteristic of both Pine and Oak.
Another benefit of Balau is that due to how hard wearing this particular wood is, it means that although it may be rather costly in the beginning, the maintenance of this wood is absolutely nothing and won’t require re-varnishing, retreating or general repairs and fixings.
The Yellow
Balau is very sustainable, it is the only wood in the Balau family that is. The red Balau (Shorea Inaequilateralis) since 1998 has been noted as a vulnerable wood species, and is now, not even 20 years later, labelled as critically endangered according to The IUCN Red List. This particular member of the Balau family is not sustainable, is under threat and cannot be used in terms of building due to its fragility of existence.
We ate Grey’s of London have decided that Balau is a perfect wood for building decking. It is beautiful, smooth, hard wearing, durable, colourful, seamless and flawless. We are going to treat the wood, clean it and varnish it to give us that flawless finish.