Larch, along with Douglas Fir, has grown in popularity in recent years.

It’s heartwood is a vibrant pinky/red when freshly sawn but dries to reddish honey-brown, with a contrasting band of white sap, before weathering to soft silver when used outside. It has a fine, uniform texture due to being typically straight-grained.

It has good strength properties- being one of the harder softwoods, fine texture and small moisture movement.

Larch hand tools fairly easily however, hard knots can loosen during the drying process and can cause problems for hand and machine tools.

It splinters fairly easily and is prone to sap pockets. As with Oak, pre-drilling is advised before nailing or using screws.

Stainless fixings are recommended as the wood has acidic properties that can corrode iron.