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Roundwood products are round and look like logs - posts, poles and firewood. Of all the forest products, firewood for heating and cooling is the most widely used globally. In New Zealand, firewood is a minor use.
Poles are perhaps the most valuable roundwood products. These products are used in a variety of ways including retaining walls, marine piles, building foundations, and telegraph poles. Log houses are sometimes built almost entirely from poles.
Posts are a lower value roundwood used for agricultural fencing, horticultural structures, landscaping etc.
Posts and poles should be relatively straight and are manufactured by peeling. This involves removing the bark and some surface wood, taking off any bumps or swellings to improve the appearance. In some higher value uses, the wood is gauged to produce a length with no taper or with a profiled edge.
Most poles and posts are preservative treated - protecting them against insect and fungal attack and giving them a useful life of up to 50 years. |