Chris Watson, Woodland Resilience Advisor at the Forestry Commission, invites Dougal Driver, CEO of Grown in Britain, to discuss how you can grow high-quality wood, and new opportunities for UK timber.
Across the UK there are thousands of woodlands growing timber that have the potential to be far more valuable than owners may first realise. With the right trees and the right markets, these woodlands could produce long-lasting timber products for buildings, homes and furniture.
In this blog we will cover some high-value wood products from UK woodlands, including timber for construction, cladding, decorative timbers, hardwood flooring, joinery and furniture making.
How to grow high-quality timberProducing high-value timber begins long before a tree is harvested. The quality of the final product is largely determined by silviculture – how a woodland is established and managed over time.
Early interventions are particularly important. Appropriate planting densities and timely thinning help ensure the best trees have enough light and space to grow straight and develop strong stems. Selecting and retaining promising individuals concentrates growth on trees most likely to produce high-quality logs. Regular, carefully planned thinning also helps improve the stability of the stand to wind and storms, ensuring trees are both productive and resilient.
Practices such as formative pruning, brashing and high pruning can further improve timber quality by removing lower branches while trees are young. This reduces the number and size of knots in the stem, allowing clearer timber to form as the tree grows.
The final factor to consider in growing high-quality trees, especially hardwoods, is protecting them from deer and grey squirrels. Deer can damage young trees and strip bark from valuable lower stems. Grey squirrels usually cause problems later on, by stripping bark and killing the tree’s crown, which negatively impacts its timber value. Effective management of both is essential to produce quality timber.
Over time, these relatively simple management decisions can significantly increase the proportion of timber suitable for structural, joinery and specialist markets.
18-year-old birch after its first thinning. High-value wood product featuresStraight stems, good form, sufficient diameter and the visual appearance of the grain all influence what your trees will be suitable for. Not every tree will meet these standards and quite often only the first few meters of a tree stem will be suitable for high-value products. However, if your woodland does have trees with the right features, this can significantly increase its value.
Well managed woodlands producing high-value timber also benefit the environment. When these trees are used for construction, flooring or furniture, they continue to store carbon over their lifetime.
High quality oak in Glinger Woods, Cumbria. Construction timber and the opportunities for UK-grown timberTimber is an integral material used in UK construction and its use is expected to grow further. The government’s timber in construction roadmap aims to increase the use of sustainable timber in construction, as part of its transition to a low-carbon construction sector.
In 2024 the UK’s apparent consumption of wood and wood products (domestic production plus imports, minus exports) was approximately 48 million cubic metres – yet around 75-80% of the timber we use is imported.1 This reliance on international supply means there is growing interest in increasing the use of UK-grown timber, creating opportunities for well managed woodlands.
The physical requirements for timber in constructionTo be suitable for structural use, timber must meet the right physical requirements. Construction timber usually comes from straight, clean sawlogs with minimal knots or other defects. Most construction timber, whether from the UK or abroad, is produced from softwood species such as spruce, pine, larch and Douglas fir.
Central to using timber in construction is the grading of timber to assess and quantify its structural properties, to ensure the right timber is used where it is required to carry structural loads.
Timber can be visually graded, where certified experts assess the knot size, grain direction and other characteristics that influence strength. However, in most large-scale sawmills, strength grading is an automatic and mechanical process which assesses the stiffness of planks passing through a grading machine to assign a structural class.
Softwood structural timber is classified into ‘C’ classes, where higher numbers indicate a stronger timber. While C24 is often considered the default grade for construction timber, most C24 timber is imported with UK-grown timber most commonly graded at C16. Importantly, C16 is suitable for most structural applications, which means homegrown timber has a strong role to play in the UK construction market, and can displace imported timber if specified at the design stage.
Person visually checking sawn timber quality. Credit: Forestry England Visual grading and the role of hardwoodsThe grading system used for construction timber is based on softwoods, which supply most of the structural timber used in buildings. Softwood boards are graded in the 'C' classes based on standards set out in BS EN 338:2016 structural timber – strength classes.
Hardwoods have their own structural classification system known as 'D' classes, such as D24 or D30. In practice, hardwood timber is often assessed for slightly different markets. Hardwood is not primarily sold as standardised planks and beams with a standardised strength grade, because it is often used in architectural, decorative or bespoke structural applications, where the individual character and dimensions of the timber can matter as much as the strength.
For example, large straight oak stems can produce long, straight beams that are difficult to replicate with smaller material. These timbers are often used as exposed features within buildings forming roof structures or dramatic internal frames where the natural character of the wood becomes part of the design.
This is where visual grading plays an important role. Experienced sawmillers will process each log and board based on what they believe the best end use to be, whether structural, joinery or flooring. Large straight stems with few knots and defects may become oak beams or timber frames, whilst attractive boards from species such as sycamore, cherry or beech may be used for interior joinery and furniture.
For woodland owners, this means well grown hardwood trees can supply a range of high value markets where both the structural qualities and natural beauty of the timber add value.
The challenge can be growing trees to the right standard to take advantage of these markets. Most trees suitable for these high-value markets have benefited from careful management in the past.
High quality, large diameter Douglas fir timber. Credit: Forestry England Timber cladding and thermally modified woodAnother growing market for UK timber is external cladding. Timber cladding has become increasingly popular in modern architecture because it provides a natural appearance, performs well in low carbon construction and can last for decades when the right species and processing methods are used.
For cladding applications, timber needs to be stable, straight and relatively defect free from knots and stains, while able to withstand moisture and exposure to the elements. Traditionally, this has meant relying on naturally durable species such as oak, sweet chestnut and larch because of their inherent durability without need for chemical treatment.
However, advances in processing are opening new opportunities through thermal modification. In this process, timber is heated in a controlled environment to temperatures of around 200 degrees Celsius, altering the wood’s internal structure. This reduces the moisture absorption and significantly improves durability and stability.
Thermal modification allows species such as ash, sycamore and poplar, which would normally be unsuitable for exterior use, to perform well as cladding and external joinery. This technology provides significant opportunities for high-quality tree species, which have in the past struggled to access large high-value markets.
Timber cladding in use on the Bwlch nant yr Arian Visitor Centre. Credit: Forestry England High-quality hardwoods for furniture joinery and specialist marketsSome of the most valuable timber produced in UK woodlands comes from high-quality hardwood trees used for furniture, joinery and specialist markets. Species such as oak, cherry, walnut, sycamore, beech and ash can all be used by furniture makers, joiners and woodturners.
In these markets, the visual character of the wood can be just as important as its structural properties. Features such as tight grain, colour variation and distinctive figuring (decorative patterns in the grain of the wood) can significantly increase the value of a log.
Sought after examples include burrs, where the tree produces a complex swirling grain pattern, or ‘pippy’ oak, where clusters of small knots create a decorative texture. Other figure patterns, such as ripple grain are prized for high-end furniture, veneers and decorative panels.
Because each tree is unique, high-quality hardwood logs are often marketed differently to standard timber. Exceptional stems are frequently sold individually at roadside, allowing specialist buyers to inspect the logs. Whilst local markets can exist for these high-value products, national or regional auctions are often used to gain access to more buyers.
The Forest Research and Grown in Britain price size curves report provides a guide to the relative value of different hardwood species and grades of logs. As a general guide, the value of these high-value hardwoods can be over £400 per cubic meter, compared to around £70-150 per cubic meter for other high-value, but more common species, such as Douglas fir.
New opportunities for UK timberAs interest in low carbon construction grows, new technologies are creating opportunities to make better use of UK timber in buildings. Engineered timber, such as glue laminated timber (glulam) and finger jointed timber, allows smaller pieces of wood to be combined into strong structural components. These processes make it possible to use timber or species that might otherwise be too small or variable for structural use.
Projects are already demonstrating what these developments could mean for UK supply chains. The Creating Sustainable Quality Homes project by Veya Homes explores how homes can be built using timber grown and processed exclusively in the UK. New developments by pioneering house builder GS8 are leading the way in sustainable living and feature a high percentage of timber including Grown in Britain certified larch cladding on the building exterior and structural C16 within.
The COP26 House, designed by Roderick James Architects, is another example where almost all the building uses C16 timber (Sitka spruce), certified by Grown in Britain. This house was built as an exemplar net-zero carbon house for COP26. It was also designed to be deconstructed and reused after the event and now has a new life on a Scottish estate.
These projects demonstrate a clear direction of travel. By combining active woodland management with modern timber processing, there is increasing potential to turn more UK-grown trees into high-value structural timber for the buildings of the future.
Discover more on how to produce wood products from your woodland on Woods Mean Business and Trees to Timber.
Forestry Statistics, 2025 ↩︎ seen at 10:11, 29 April in Forestry Commission.