Australian building materials density list

As a tiny house builder, you really need to know how material densities will affect your build. 

Put simply, the greater the building material density, the heavier your tiny house will become. But less dense materials may not have the specific characteristics of strength or flexibility which they need to do the job! So choosing the right building materials based on density is really important! 

Luckily, Fred’s Tiny Houses have researched and compiled this handy list of common Australian building materials for you. 

This list includes wood species native to Australia and other useful reference materials, and includes many links to original source documents. 

In Australia, the lightest, least dense wood you’ll come across is, Paulownia, which comes in at only 280 kg/m3, which makes it even lighter than Western Red Cedar (WRC), a softwood species with a density of 330-385 kg/m3.

In comparison, Radiata Pine is a versatile, fast-growing, medium-density softwood species with a density of 400-550 kg/m3; while Tasmanian Oak or Victorian Ash is a hardwood species with a density of approximately 650kg/m3.

And for a further point of comparison for tiny house builders the density of glass is 2400โ€“2800 kg/m3!  So be careful with double glazing because it adds weight and expense quickly.  and it might not be necessary in temperate regions of Australia where low humidity and moderate temperatures in winter make the benefit of double gazing minimal.   For more on this see Resources for DIY Tiny House Builders in Australia.

So download and keep this handy list of densities as a reference guide as you design your tiny house.