Timber vs Colorbond Steel Veranda

Statco colorbond steel

Install a veranda works exclusively with Stratco designed and engineered colorbond steel, that is sourced from blue sculpt steel right here in Victoria. It’s a local product.

You wouldn’t even consider something like timber against that, Is your home worth it?

Wood is organic, and doesn’t last as long.

When we are getting down to basics, wood is an organic material. And I don’t care how it is prepared, cut, dried, treated, painted or coated, it is an organic material. By its very nature it is going to start reacting with the environment straight away.

My view is that you actually can’t get the hardwood that you used to get 18-20 years ago. A lot of these structures after 4 or 5 years are rotting in places. And there’s been plenty of places that I’ve gone out to where we’ve had to pulled down structures that have only been up 5 or 6 years. So it ends up being the less cost effective choice, because you are going to end up replacing the whole structure.

Fire code and other issues

A couple of other things with wood that really stand out with me. Since 2006 most of Melbourne has been under a really strict fire code. A lot of the fringe areas around the bell ratings, you can’t build a timber product outside a house under a bell rated area. It can’t happen. And here’s the other one, the mere nature of having to paint it, there’s a texture on it that insects could crawl over. It’s a very hard for a spider to get a spider web going on a Stratco veranda.

Steel is a better look, and lasts longer

They always look a lot cleaner don’t they?

For the years that I’ve been doing this I would probably replace a timber structure weekly, go out and quote I mean. I don’t think I’ve ever had to go out and replace a steel veranda. And that speaks to the longevity of a timber veranda.

Like a colorbond fence. You do a timber one and you know that you are going to have to replace it whether colorbond finished or not, six weeks, six months or six years old.