The tree may have been felled, but the timber is still alive

In its natural standing form trees are very active organisms using the sun’s energy to transform carbon dioxide captured from the air into wood. This process uses huge amounts of water drawn from the roots up through the tubes or Xylem in the wood. This structure is very stable across its length, but dynamic against its width, and wood even in it’s felled timber state retains the ability to absorb water and “swell”. This behaviour is apparent in the shoulders of the beech trusses where the beech has naturally absorbed some of the ambient moisture inherent in the building process and swelled, pushing the principal rafters apart and causing the apparent “crack” between the truss principal rafters. Structurally the truss continues to work as intended, and this gap will recede as moisture levels in the building slowly recede. Its a reminder that timber is always alive…