Why is Iron Wood Decking & Eco Wood Decking Important in Today's Society?

Iron Wood decking is one of the hardest timber deck materials in the world. It has wide variety of species, (consisted of 27 wood species worldwide); on the other hand, Eco wood decking such as palm wood is made of recycled natural resources. Hence therefore, home owners may feel good with iron wood or eco wood on protecting the forests without endangering wood species such as merbau or chengal.

According to The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™, a global initiative to save endangered animal and plant species; some of the traditional highly demanded outdoor wood decking materials that we can still find in Singapore such as merbau and chengal, are already classified as vulnerable and near extinction.

"At the current rate of officially sanctioned logging, most of the remaining merbau will be gone within the next 35 years."

(according to another research article written by Greenpeace International, titled "Merbau Last Stand" to address the illegal logging of merbau.)

The article further quotes, "The IUCN’s Red List of Threatened Species 2006 has categorised merbau as "facing a high risk of extinction in the wild in the near future," with logging and habitat destruction being the major threats."

The home owner must also have a clear understanding about the source of the wood species that he will be using for his home. It is therefore very important to choose a reliable wood flooring contractor who distributes wood products from forest controlled market sources. Alternatively, the owner can also choose to use engineered wood which is mostly encouraged because of its eco friendly nature. Engineered wood helps to save many trees, control demand as well as allows more time for worldwide 'endangered' wood species to grow again to a healthy level of supply. Hence, merbau wood floor lovers, can still consider engineered merbau instead.

As for outdoor decking purposes, the owner can consider eco wood decking such as palm wood, recycled wood or refurnished pine wood; Eco wood has relatively higher dimensional density than most traditional wood decking material; hence, eco wood is more durable against all weather such as rain or shine. 

Due to its plentiful amount of worldwide supply, Iron Wood can be considered as a safe environmentally choice at this moment. Iron wood is so hard that it can also be used for heavy duty wood construction such as bridges, trellises and pergolas.

Hence, for new wood flooring buyers, it is best to choose a reliable flooring and decking contractor in their region, so as to minimise the risk of using a certain wood species that are not controlled by global forest stewardship authorities.