Using Coconut Trees For Building Lumber

[stevehaigh]

i have a lot of coconut trees on some land i'm buying and need to clear a few to make space for a house. i've seen the locals using coconut wood for building but read that coconut is a very difficult wood to process properly.

i read an article saying the wood, after cutting into boards, needs to be soaked in water, air dried then kiln dried, but the article didn't give specifics.

does anyone have any experience using coconut tree wood for building? i'm mostly interested in using it for interior flooring.

thanks

[RamdomChances]

If it's for a house I would'nt bother, it does'nt last long enough.

I've used it a lot on out buildings,basicaly cos its cheap and I've got loads of them. It does'nt last well though.

They dont really do anything with it here just cut it up and use it, I dont know itf the "processing" that you were refering to would work or where you could get it done.

Cheers RC

[stevehaigh]

well I think that's the trick, in order for it to last it has to be treated and dried properly, i just don't know how to do that.

[thaiwing]

I just cut down four of the things. Thought it was best to kill them before they killed me. Dropping nuts at mack 125. used it as roof timber on sunshade area at back of house.

Anyway, you will find that once the trees have been cut by a thai lumberjack, not much wood will be available for use. in fact 50% will be left to rot on the land due to soft parts of tree. I thought i would get some long sections from a tall tree, but the guy cut them into three or four sections across, explaining that he know what was good and not good by visual experience. its a bad wood to use on building a house. good for outhouse or store room roof timber, dont put any in house as gets some sort of fungus after a period of time...

I miss the shade now they gone....

[Up2U]

Do not use any sort of palm for structural work.

This is not timber, as understood in the construction industry. It has no strength whatsoever. In Libya, up to fifty years ago, it was used for door leaves, but that has died out now.

The structure of a palm is more of a honeycomb than the dense fibre of a tree. Just because they grow tall, do not think of them as trees. Same goes for banana plants, which are closer to grasses than to trees.

Timber is cheap in Thailand - although teak is expensive - same as everywhere else.

[sbk]

Termites love coconut wood. If the tree is very old and very tall you can get good hard wood out of it, otherwise it will be eaten.

[splitlid]

any tree that grows quickly ie.pine or coconut.

is not good for construction in these climates.(or any)

its soft because of the time it takes to grow.and therefor is prone to ternites and the likes who can easily chomp through it.because of its rapid growth its cheap.just look at Ikea for proof.

hard woods like teaks and mahogony take ages to grow,and thus are very expensive but look the best and are not so penetrable to the weather,insects or funguses.

so dont use coconut for anthing you want to last.

[Up2U]

I've been browsing Google, to try to find threads advising against using palm trees as construction material.

Regrettably, they all say the opposite, without qualification.

I pereat - do not use the stuff! It ain't gonna work! No structural integrity, subject to termites and decay, useless!

[royar2002]

You can use coconut wood to make a house. In Koh pha-ngan you will find many house make from coconuttree. No woodhouse will last a lifetime in KPN, if you not use hardwood (teak) but hardwood resistance to termites is hard to find and will cost a lot. A friend imported some hardwood from malaysia and have the same problem with termites. I lived in a house build of coconuttree 6 years (the house was 15years old and looks like new because the owner take very good care. If you use coconutwood to build a house.

1. Only use old trees with hard wood.

2. To avoid termites, you have to options. The old Thais in KPN used to put the tree in salt water until they sunk. After they dry, the tree is full of salt and keep the termites away. Today not many have time to wait for The natural saltwater

termite resistance solution and use a lot of poison to kill the termites. Anyway you have to use some termitekiller at least once a year. I think they use shelldri, (don't remember how they spell). I living in KPN long time and after a couple of years in North, and because I love and miss the island, I will return back to KPN after Christmas, and I will use Coconuts when I make a new house. Maybe it will not last so long as house make by hardwood, but you can make 5 house at the same price. About your Q about how to move, do like chanchao told you to do in another topic.

Find a "friend" with a pickup, pay for the diesel and take them to the Full Moon Party. Last time it cost me about 12k from Nongkhai, but the thai couple who have the pickup stay one week in KPN and the car was loaded with furniture, dog, cat and my slim thaiwife.

Welcome to KPN.

[bkk barney]

coconut trees are ok to use the wood as form work if u r pouring beams, other than that they really dont have any other practical use apart from making coconuts, well and they look nice on the beach and can give u shade, putting any wood to season in salt water is a good idea here in the tropics, but in aussie land they soak the wood in an arsenic mix and i reckon thats a better way to deal with all these poxy insects here

[sbk]

Pressure treated wood in the US is treated with an arsenic compound. Several studies I have seen show that the arsenic leaches into the soil and that the soil around the structure is usually many times over the level allowed by the govt. Tests have also shown that the arsenic will come off on your hand if you touch the wood.

Royar is correct, most houses in Koh Phangan (including my own) are made, at least in part, with coconut wood. Our roof frame is made of it. But, only the oldest, tallest trees are used and then only the hardest parts. The lumberjack does know best in this case. Experience tells. You can also easily use the softer pieces for cement framing.

[bkk barney]

sbk.

its now a lot cheaper to use steel to put up a roof in thailand and a lot quicker, any builder that wants to use wood to support ur roof obviously aint got a welding machine and a cut off wheel and shouldnt be considered as a builder

[sbk]

sbk.

its now a lot cheaper to use steel to put up a roof in thailand and a lot quicker, any builder that wants to use wood to support ur roof obviously aint got a welding machine and a cut off wheel and shouldnt be considered as a builder

I live 10 feet from the ocean and we built our house 15 years ago. Long before car ferrys and even power tools (power was only on at night in those days). Back then, it was coconut wood or nothing

[OOLEEBER]

Hi sbk,

I wanna see your house "10 feet from the ocean". Sounds like heaven.

Good to hear all these insights about the use (or non use) of coconut wood. We have heaps on our land. Reminds me of balsa wood in school, design and technology class.

I live near Sukhothai so I think the nearest salt water is in another country. Just another reason I want to see sjb's home. Ahh the ocean.

[bkk barney]

when did thailand get an ocean? i thought thai was surrounded by sea on the coastal sides?

ahhh u dont live in thailand??

[OOLEEBER]

ok so my geography or watever the word is for areas of water.... sucks.

But a tide is a tide and the gentle lapping of waves is music to most folks ears. Ocean, sea, gulf.... whatever. Its really only a word that evokes the same thing. Even if if it exposes my lack of education I can still admire it.

[sbk]

Don't be pedantic bkkbarney, life is far too short to be so nitpicky about unimportant details such as using "sea" instead of "ocean" when one means that large body of salty water off my front porch

Just a little local island wisdom for ya!

[stevehaigh]

thanks for all the advice, i guess i'll just have to experiment. i have a lot of very tall and i would guess old trees to use and plan on using it mostly for flooring where it would be treated and varnished.

if anyone in Ko Pha-ngan knows an experienced wood guy, please PM me.

thanks again, steve

[bkk barney]

sbk. sometimes ppl spend too long in thailand and begin to lose the plot so to speak

they forget major things like how many oceans there are in the world and seas and continents, they start reffering to bangkok city as bangkok town, its a slippery slope down that way when the mind just cant keep up with real life and u spend way too much time with thai ppl and things like that just dont seem to matter anymore its at that point when u realise u would never ever be able to get a job in a proper country again, thats when desperation sets in and u start telling ppl that the differance between an ocean and a sea is no differance at all

ps. pls take this in the humour it was written in

[sbk]

Lost the plot?? Me?? Well, maybe a little bit

But to be honest, far too many people spend far too much time stressing over little things that don't really matter. I only stress over big things I can't do anything about

Steve, where are you planning on building? There are several good lumberjacks around the island and it is best to get one locally (he has less far to carry the chainsaw). These guys are amazing, cutting planks with chainsaws, and they come out even!

[Ajarn]

Well, all I can say is, I was living in a hut made from coconut wood when it fully withstood head-on winds gusting to 180 kmph from Typhoon Gay in 1989. The flexibilty of the wood gave a real sense of being in Dorothy's house in 'The Wizard of Oz' during the tornado....

Here was the scene outside a side window

[sbk]

Typhoon Gay was exciting wasn't it? Fortunately for Samui and Phangan we weren't right in the middle like Koh Tao, the eye passed right over it. Apparently all the boats that had put into harbor there sank. Still, I had a few scary moments, especially afterwards when it took the govt two weeks to get supplies to Chumpon which had been totally devastated. That was scarier than the typhoon!

But the coconut trees around us were quite flexible, we didn't lose any trees. However, I must say the high velocity reached by a flying coconut as it is whipped off the tree certainly didn't make me a big fan of the trees

[Ajarn]

We just lost the coconut trees that were rooted too much in sand. But, the next day, I learned what fresh heart of palm tasted like...Some other trees just lost their tops, but nothing like Chumpom, for sure. We could crack our window a bit, and we watched coconuts first drop down, then almost straight out like a shot when it hit the wind.

I remember that we didn't get any warning. The rain started, seemed normal, then just grew and grew.....

I'm glad I was in that hut. But I didn't feel that way at the time much

I guess if I was on Kho Tao, I'd put on my scuba gear and wait...

As you remember, some of the worst flooding was blamed on illegal logging, and the King stepped in and forced an immediate stop to all logging in Thailand, which Parliment later backed, as per the Thai constitution at that time. Interestingly, though depressing, is the fact that the amount of illegal logging increased every year for many years after that, from a report I read a few years ago. It might still be the case today...

Edited September 3, 2004 by Ajarn

[OOLEEBER]

Really interesting suff guys - Thanks.

I'd love to be in that situation but know that I would be ok when it's over.

I hope i can experience that kind of sheer power sometime and come out unscathed to recount the memory.

Must have shat yer pants in that coconut hut though Ajarn.

[royar2002]

When we chat about coconut tree and Typhoon in KPN, I heard from KPN that a man was hit by Coconut last week in Chalouklam and die at the hospital. Can somebody from KPN confirm that. Was it a Thai or farang? It happends outside my old house and could be a friend.

[sbk]

Royar, I have lived here 15 years and have NEVER heard of someone getting killed by a coconut. I asked a good friend of mine in Thong Sala whose 75 year old mother heard about one person getting killed by a coconut when she was young. The people at risk of getting hurt by coconuts are those who get them down with sticks. My husband was hit on the side of the head by one and briefly knocked out (I've always said he was rockheaded ).

I will ask around but frankly, sounds like "chinese whispers" to me. If I hear anything either way I will post it to this thread. Check out Beckman's website, he often has news of this sort: phangan island news.

[RamdomChances]

I cut most of mine down cos the cow's like sleeping under them. I've seen them drop, might not of killed the cow but would'nt do it any good

People are to clever to sleep under them, are'nt they?

[stevehaigh]

sbk, I hoping to start building soon in Baan Hinkong (west side, well away from Haad Rin!). I'm still working on buying the land. There is a problem securing right of way to the land as usual.

I've seen lumberjacks ripping logs with chain saws. They seem to know what they are doing. But then they dry the wood in the sun, that looks like a bad idea.