Everything you every wanted to know about timber and more! The Essential Guide is designed for anyone wanting to know the characteristics of timber, whether it be about trees in their native habitat, how they are harvested for the building and furniture industries, what types of timber are best used in commercial, residential and hobby projects, and what types of pests timber may be subject to. The Guide even provides several examples of how timber products have been wrongly applied in past projects, so that builders, and even DIY hobbists can avoid making costly mistakes. Whether youre a hobbyist, tradie, building professional or work in the timber industry, Ed Scotts Essential Guide will provide you with the knowledge and ability to understand the nuances of timber and wood-based products, enabling successful outcomes for timber projects, be they simple or complex. The Guide is written in an easy-to-follow style and covers all the critical aspects of the conversion of trees through to end use products and applications picking up all the relevant factors and properties, physical and chemical, that can influence performance. To round off the Guide, Ed gives actual case studies where issues in timber use have arisen and explains the causes of these and how they could have been avoided.