Doing Business with Jon William Stables

We understand that selecting the right equestrian building for your beloved horse can be both frustrating and confusing; however we are keen to explain why we are different to other stable manufacturers.

Why you should do business with Jon William Stables

About Our Wood

We work with one the most beautiful natural products in the world – wood – and it is important to start with some information and knowledge about the material used to create your building.

Essentially, wood is either hardwood or softwood. You can also create compounds, such as Chipboard, plywood and OSB.

Softwood is either redwood or whitewood. Redwood, due to its grain, gives a better machined finish and is therefore graded for its visual attributes. Grading is based upon the size, frequency and position of the knots. These are the visible areas where branches have grown from the timber.

There are five Redwood grades of timber, these being Unsorted, 4th Russian, 5th Scandinavian, 6th Scandinavian and 6th Russian. Each has its own specific use – for example, Unsorted is used for furniture, such as tables and cabinets and is of the highest quality, and will feature hardly any knots at all.

6th Scandinavian has larger and more frequent knots, and can suffer ‘deadknots’ which fall out after a period of time, and for this reason is used for garden sheds, fencing and fence posts.

6th Russian is very poor quality, and used for pallets, packaging quality timber and toilet paper.

Between these extremes, we find 4th Russian and 5th Scandinavian. Generally speaking, within the timber industry, it is accepted that 4th is not quite as good as 5th – the reason being that it is less consistent and can therefore feature occasional ‘deadknots’ and some larger knots.

The uses of both grades tend to be such home items as skirting boards, window frames,  softwood doors and banisters – the finishing touches.

Whitewood does not quite have the finished visual appeal of Redwood, and is graded on structural strength. The grades are C16 or C24, with C24 being the strongest.

Essentially, the grading is based upon the grain pattern of the wood. The dark lines running through the timber indicate the slow winter growth, and the wood here is stronger than the light areas, which represent the faster summer growth period. Therefore, the tighter the rings – those ‘dark lines’ - the stronger the wood.

Both grades are used extensively for joists, load bearing walls, partitioning and roof trusses.

With all this information in mind, we always select the finest 5th Scandinavian for shiplap (external cladding), windows and door cladding – the visual part of the building, exactly as you would find in your house!

Structurally, we use a combination of C16/ C24 for the framework, roof purlings, trusses and door frames – again, exactly as you would find in your own home.

Treatment and Preservatives

Wood can be a source of food for decay fungi and certain species of insects, so it is important to make sure that all the components of your building are treated.

There are three generally accepted methods of preserving the timber; pressure sprayed, dipping and pressure impregnation.

Pressure sprayed – ie timber sprayed under pressure - doesn’t give a very good finish, and will often need redoing on a regular basis. Dipping, whereby the timber is dipped into a tank and allowed to dry, is most commonly used for fencing, fencing posts and sheds.

Pressure impregnation falls into two categories – low pressure and high pressure. Our preferred method is high pressure – commonly known as Tanalised or CCP. The raw timber is transferred into the treatment vessel, and the air is removed from both vessel and the wood. The vessel is then filled with preservative and pressurised, forcing the preservative into the timber.

This is the only system that really ensures your timber is fully preserved

Environmental Concerns

Timber is renewable, biodegradable, nontoxic, energy efficient and greenhouse gas friendly. Scientific studies show that it is the environmental material of choice as well as being one of the oldest, most versatile and natural materials known to man.

Jon William Stables is a member of TRADA (Timber Research and Development Association) and is fully committed to providing very high quality products supplied only from well managed and sustainable resources. We support the independent certification of sustainable forestry, and we work to link the increasing demand for independently certified sources with an expanding global supply base. Sustaining the forest reserves is critical, both to continued prosperity and global environmental stability. As such, we ensure that all our suppliers are members of the Timber Trade Federation, and are signed up to the Environmental Code of Practice, which encourages improved standards of conduct and condemns illegal logging practices.

The ultimate responsibility for Forest Policy lies with the government and people of the forested countries, as they have the task of balancing environmental, economic, social and political needs. However, JWS firmly believe that we have a huge responsibility to customers, suppliers and staff to base all our commercial activities on properly managed and sustainable forests.

Therefore, Jon William Stables does not source wood or wood products from:

1, Forest areas where traditional or civil rights have been violated

2, Non-FSC certified forest areas or non- PEF C certified areas

3, Genetically modified (GM) trees

4, Illegally harvested wood

5, Natural forests that have been converted to plantations or non-forest use

Basically, we care about our world and trust that our customers do too!

We hope this website has explained why you should buy from us, and now you can select which product is perfect for you and your horse.