It is an incredibly valuable commercial timber widely used in construction and building purposes.
Is doug fir a hardwood or softwood.
Balsa is a hardwood but its wood is so soft and lightweight that it s most commonly used for making model airplanes.
Hardwood is typically more expensive than softwood.
Douglas fir is technically not a true fir abies genus but is in its own genus.
Douglas fir is a large tree reaching 85 metres on bc s coast and 42 metres in the interior.
The tree itself grows to be very large and yields a large amount of usable lumber and veneer for plywood.
The oldest trees can be more than 1 500 years old.
Douglas fir like all firs is a softwood softwood is actually a term that is used to classify all the conifers while hardwood is used as a classification for all angiosperm trees.
Most hardwoods have a higher density than most softwoods.
However douglas fir which is a gymnosperm or softwood is actually harder than chestnut an angiosperm that most people would call a hardwood.
Examples of softwood trees are cedar douglas fir juniper pine redwood spruce and yew.
Red oak wood is almost exactly twice as hard as douglas fir wood and white oak wood is even harder.
Most softwoods have a lower density than most hardwoods.
Due to its strength it is used for building and construction and is one of the finest timbers for heavy structural purposes including glulam beams and roof trusses.