Are you about to erect a new structure; a new house, a shed, a barn, an outbuilding, or perhaps you wish to renovate your current place and you have shiplap as a material of interest in either the interior or exterior design of the structure, perhaps both, but you’re uncertain because you don’t know too much about shiplap?
Here are a few things you should seriously consider before investing in shiplap.
Is Shiplap a Good Insulator?
Yes! Shiplap is a very good insulator in fact. Shiplap can be made from different types of wood, ranging from cedar wood in places where water resistance is important to cheap pine wood where moisture isn’t a problem.
Overall, a general characteristic common to all types of wood is that they are very good natural insulators because their cellular structures allow for them to contain air pockets which greatly slow their conductivity of heat.
For context, when the insulation of wood was compared with other materials used in structures, wood was found to have 15 times the insulation of masonry (construction of structures using individual units such as bricks and stone), 400 times the insulation of steel, and 1,770 times the insulation of aluminum.
How does good or inadequate insulation affect you and your building?
The major advantage of good insulation for your building is that it improves energy efficiency; meaning it reduces the amount of energy consumed by your building by keeping the heat in during cold periods and keeping heat out during warmer periods.
This means you get to spend a lot less on energy bills, in fact, the good insulation provided by wood, shiplap, in this case, can reduce your energy bill by over 40%.
Yes! A staggering 40% can be knocked off your energy bill simply by employing the use of shiplap in your structure.
This automatically makes any investment in shiplap a smart financial move. An added advantage of the good insulation provided by shiplap is the fact that it often eliminates water condensation on the ceilings and walls of your structure.
Shiplap is an ideal insulator and a very good material to use for your building when considering insulation.
Is Shiplap Easy to Clean?
Not exactly. When it comes to the aspect of keeping shiplap clean, it isn’t exactly the easiest task.
Shiplap is either arranged vertically or horizontally when it is set in any structure, but the panels aren’t tightly jointed to each other.
This leaves crevices between the individual panels and those little spaces over time to become a place for dust particles to settle and these particles are often difficult to reach and clean because of the size of the gaps.
The use of a vacuum cleaner may be employed in cleaning those crevices, even then the entire cleaning process may remain a Herculean task as it is quite exerting to clean each individual crevice between the panels of the shiplap from top to bottom all around the building.
The exercise of cleaning shiplap may be quite tedious, stressful, and time-consuming.
Although, when it comes to dirt resistance and ease of cleaning, shiplap doesn’t come off as impeccable, it doesn’t necessarily count as a major setback in the use of shiplap because it doesn’t require frequent cleaning; cleaning your shiplap once every few months would suffice depending on the area in which you live.
Is Shiplap Eco-Friendly?
Yes! Shiplap is totally and absolutely eco-friendly, this is probably the most obvious fact about shiplap, after all, it is a product of wood.
Wood is the only material used in buildings and structures whose energy is both renewable and sustainable.
Shiplap provides a lot of environmental benefits because it is a product of wood and wood has several characteristics that are beneficial to the environment; wood stores carbon even after it is cut and keeps it out of the atmosphere, this removal of carbon from the atmosphere mollifies the several effects of climate change.
Also, when energy consumption of wood, its greenhouse gas emissions, water, and air pollutants, and other effects was compared with that of other building materials such as concrete and steel.
It was found out that steel consumed 12% more energy than wood,
emitted 15% more greenhouse gases than wood,
produced 300% more water pollutants and 10% more air pollutants than wood,
while, concrete, on the other hand, consumed 20% more energy than wood,
emitted 29% more greenhouse gases than wood, produced 225% more water pollutants and 12% more air pollutants than wood.
Using wood in your building, shiplap, in this case, is perfect for your environment, aids the health, and is very good for the planet.
Is Shiplap Elegant?
It is possible you’re unsure if you’re investing in something elegant and stylish with shiplap, but I can assure you that shiplap would absolutely live up to your expectations in terms of beauty and elegance.
Shiplap along with all of its benefits also packs a ton of elegance.
Currently quite trendy, and popular all over the place, shiplap’s exquisiteness will always catch your eye as it has caught the eye of many other people and is a very common sight in different buildings and structures nowadays.
One of the most emphasized characteristics of shiplap in your building is that it oozes class and style.
Shiplap can be very beautiful depending on how well its use is employed yet it remains simple, it fits almost if not perfectly in any setting you choose for your building, as well as at any particular location in your house; from your kitchen to your living room, your dining room, bedroom, your bathroom, your balcony, etc.
And even with that level of versatility, it still maintains a graceful appearance wherever its use is employed.
Therefore, you can be certain that using shiplap in your building isn’t an outdated or classless employ, it is in fact a very trendy and elegant material for your building, in comparison to other materials used for interior and exterior designs in buildings and structures, shiplap often stands out.
Is Shiplap a Southern Thing?
Shiplap originally originated from northern Europe, but it got adopted in the United States and over the years has become very common in states like North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Alabama, Tennessee, etc.
All in the southern U.S.A because it is well suited to the climate over there, very popular for its nature of contracting and expanding easily according to the weather of the region at different times with no after-effects.
Despite the fact that shiplap is a preferred material in the southern U.S.A and is most common in those parts, shiplap over time has now gained a lot of attention all around the nation, especially through Chip and Joanna Gaines’ show and is now very popular around the country.
It is used very often in the interior and exterior designs of several structures everywhere. Putting this into consideration, you can’t really say that shiplap is a southern thing anymore at this point in time as its use has become widespread over the years and it has been imbibed in various regions across the country.
Does Lowes Carry Shiplap?
In terms of structures, lowes are walls having little relative height, they are either called low walls or dwarf walls.
You may want to erect or perhaps you’re already erecting a structure with a dwarf wall and you are unsure about whether it would be wise to invest in shiplap for the walls of the structure because you’re not certain if the dwarf walls will be able to withstand and carry the weight of the shiplap.
You can rest easy on this matter as the answer to the question is Yes!
A dwarf wall would easily support the weight of shiplap because shiplap despite being very durable doesn’t weigh enough to put enough pressure on a wall of concrete or stone to make it crumble, in fact, shiplap can be very light depending on the type used to make it.
If this has been a source of concern for you, you can forget your concerns because I assure you that shiplap would in no way diminish the integrity of your dwarf wall because it is too light to do so.
However, the lightness of the shiplap doesn’t reduce its durability or tenacity against all kinds of weather as it still maintains its high level of endurance.
REFERENCES:
www.en.m.wikipedia.org
www.cheatsheet.com
