Thread: Teak wood for me home...

Not, if the land is privately owned and for personal use. Hence, the term 'personal use' comes into play...

Aren't the trees a bit small?

Marmite, bear in mind that most of these trees are for the 'decorative' look of the home. Some of the biggens are on another plot of land. The home itself will be a Bali, old-style Thai with a dash of hillbilly thrown into the mixture!

However, you did bring up an excellent point. The giant Teak trees are often about 100 years old. Lots of wood! These trees are known as a village tree. In other words to cut down such a mammoth requires the entire village. The problem is when cutting down such a large tree, one cant just chainsaw the giant and let it fall. The tree is so heavy that it will often shatter or crack when it hits the ground thereby lowering the profits. So what has to happen is to cut the tree in such a way as to allow it to fall on other trees, thus breaking the fall.

So you can begin to see the deforestation problem. However, keep in mind that a big tree is worth about a million baht!