Knysna Timber Homes – Established 1988.

Timber Homes provides a full turnkey service to clients which eliminates the need to incur costs and deal with various professional service providers including architects, engineers, surveyors, local authorities and sub-contractors thereby simplifying the process leading up to the actual construction which ensures a more cost-effective process.

Knysna Timber Homes will gladly collaborate and assist other professional service providers, subcontractors and suppliers which the client may choose to appoint on their project.

Knysna Timber Homes will however gladly collaborate with and assist any professional service provider or other which the client may wish to appoint in his/her project..

Our turnkey service to clients includes the following:

• Project Assessment
• Architectural Design and Sketch Plans
• Cost Estimates
• Land Surveys
• Local Authority Building Plan Approval
• Construction Detailing
• Project Management
• Subcontracted Items including Built-In Cupboards, Electrical Wiring and Plumbing.

Benjamin Franklin stated that “bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten” and therefore important to take cognizance of the fact that our most successful markets agents are our ex-clients!

Timber is the only building material derived from a renewable resource. It is considered an agricultural crop that is harvested and replanted in a continually regenerating cycle while nonrenewable resources such as iron ore are mined on a permanently depleting basis. Knysna Timber Homes only uses timber sourced from sustainable forests.

Timber provides wide-ranging benefits such as carbon sequestration. Since trees capture and store carbon, they are currently the most cost effective and readily expandable means of drawing CO2 out of the atmosphere. Even if the tree is cut down, carbon dioxide is kept out of the atmosphere if the wood is used to make long-life products, such as houses. Moreover, once they are cut, if the acreage is replanted with seedlings, those seedlings will grow much faster, and store more carbon dioxide per year, than the older trees that were cut down.

Sustainably harvested timber has a lower carbon footprint compared to other building materials such as concrete, brick, ceramic tiles, aluminum and steel. Carbon dioxide emissions, which contribute to global warming, are three times higher for steel than for a comparable quantity of wood.

Timber as a building material is energy efficient in that it needs less energy (usually sourced from finite fossil fuels) for its industrial production and transformation compared with other building materials. Steel requires three times as much energy as its wood counterpart to extract, manufacture, transport, and construct. While wood accounts for 46 percent of industrial raw materials (by weight) worldwide, it uses only 4 percent of the energy required to process raw materials into useful products. 

Timber is biodegradable and easily recyclable. Even the insulation Knysna Timber Homes uses is polymer from recycled PET bottles and is completely recyclable.

Timber is a healthy, non-toxic, natural building material.

Timber is light and therefore easy to transport.

Gram for gram, wood is the strongest structural material commonly used in building.

Timber homes are energy efficient.

Timber is the best insulator of all structural building materials and, when used together with fibre or foil insulation in a well-designed building, minimal external energy is needed to heat and cool the home.

Timber construction is normally quicker, cleaner and more suitable ecologically sensitive sites.

In the case of a fire, timber retains its mechanical properties. Moreover, it transmits heat 10 times less quickly than concrete and 250 times less quickly than steel.

Timber homes create a relaxing living environment. It has been scientifically proven that a kind of terpene substance emitted by wood, which is used for protection against invaders, is effective in relaxing the mind and body. This is the so-called "forest bath" effect. This effect does not change once the tree has been harvested. It continues to provide us with a deeply relaxing environment.

Knysna Timber Homes utilizes a Timber Frame Building System which complies with National Building Regulations, relevant SABS codes and approved for bond purposes by all major financial institutions in South Africa.

Our system allows for architecturally innovative designs and are often combined with masonry, steel and various other forms of construction. Knysna Timber Homes projects are on average completed in less than 1/3 of the time it would take to complete similar projects with bricks and mortar.

All timber components used in our buildings are from sustainable sources and our methods of construction and choice of products are at the heart of sustainable living. All timber components are preservative treated to comply with SABS standards, to ensure a high quality and long-lasting product.

The overall masses of our timber structures are considerably less than those of conventional buildings and therefore an ideal choice when adding an additional story onto an existing brick or other structures. Finishing and cladding options both internally and externally are limitless.

We have highly skilled building teams which are employed full-time, which enables us to provide clients with a comprehensive guarantee after handover. We do not rely on subcontracted constructions teams.