Shou Sugi Ban

[Tom D]

Has anyone ever made any? I am building a house soon if we ever get the planning through and we are thinking of this as the weatherboarding. I have collected quite a lot of black pine from the recent storms so I'm hoping to use that. Any ideas or suggestions welcome in terms of techniques or tools...

[monkeybusiness]

Zero experience, never heard of it until now tbh, but saw the last half of an old Grand Designs recently with a chap converting an old bungalow and he was charring the larch cladding with a blowtorch before installing.
It looked brilliant when finished!

[Haironyourchest]

A family member tried it on some roof trusses, as an aesthetic feature. Very light charring followed by oil. Looks good. 

[HuntingHicap]

@luxhas it or something like it on his house.

[lux]

Has anyone ever made any? I am building a house soon if we ever get the planning through and we are thinking of this as the weatherboarding. I have collected quite a lot of black pine from the recent storms so I'm hoping to use that. Any ideas or suggestions welcome in terms of techniques or tools...

My advice is buy it.

We are nearing the end of our house build. We have a lot of it cladding the exterior.

We used Siberian larch. You pick the the level of finish you want. In that I mean in terms of the depth of burn and how charred you want the surface to be be. From a fairly smooth finish to a more crickled charcoal like appearance.

The burn is controlled by machine / computer doing loads of boards in large batches ensuring you get an even finish for the exterior.

I found a contractor who had done 3 or 4 houses in it before.

[monkeybusiness]

29 minutes ago, lux said:

My advice is buy it.

We are nearing the end of our house build. We have a lot of it cladding the exterior.

We used Siberian larch. You pick the the level of finish you want. In that I mean in terms of the depth of burn and how charred you want the surface to be be. From a fairly smooth finish to a more crickled charcoal like appearance.

The burn is controlled by machine / computer doing loads of boards in large batches ensuring you get an even finish for the exterior.

I found a contractor who had done 3 or 4 houses in it before.


 

Any pics?

[5thelement]

I felled some Larch for cladding a listed barn in East Sussex, an area designated as AONB, the planning officer insisted that the cladding be black. 
We chose to have a a go at Shou Sugi Ban and compare it against the staining options, it was far superior.

We used a gas torch to get the result/colour that the customer wanted, time consuming but pretty consistent, the planning officer who is notoriously difficult loved it especially as the Larch was also felled and milled within 500 metres of the barn.

If I had a large area to cover I would certainly look down the pre-burned by machine route though.

Edited February 20, 2022 by 5thelement

[monkeybusiness]

1 minute ago, 5thelement said:

I felled some Larch for cladding a listed barn in East Sussex, an area designated as AONB, the planning officer insisted that the cladding be black. 
We chose to have a a go at Shou Sugi Ban and compare it against the staining options, it was far superior.

We used a gas torch to get the result/colour that the customer wanted, time consuming but pretty consistent, the planning officer who is notoriously difficult loved it especially as the Larch was also felled and milled within 500 metres of the barn.

If I had a large area to cover I would certainly look down the pre-burned bb machine route though.

I’m guessing you burn at least 3 ‘faces’ of the boards to allow for shrinkage/movement, so there isn’t a disparity in colour?

[5thelement]

2 minutes ago, monkeybusiness said:

I’m guessing you burn at least 3 ‘faces’ of the boards to allow for shrinkage/movement, so there isn’t a disparity in colour?

We had a production line set up in the field and charred all faces, then rubbed them back slightly with wire brushes. 

[Tom D]

1 hour ago, lux said:

My advice is buy it.

We are nearing the end of our house build. We have a lot of it cladding the exterior.

We used Siberian larch. You pick the the level of finish you want. In that I mean in terms of the depth of burn and how charred you want the surface to be be. From a fairly smooth finish to a more crickled charcoal like appearance.

The burn is controlled by machine / computer doing loads of boards in large batches ensuring you get an even finish for the exterior.

I found a contractor who had done 3 or 4 houses in it before.

 

I have looked at that but.. its expensive and when I have a load of wood sitting there and the space to do it it seems daft to buy it. It looks labour intensive, but then I'd have the satisfaction of having done it myself, I'm going to do some timber cladding for inside too..