Attitudes and preferences of the homeowners who renovated their house towards timber as a building material in Bachok, Kelantan

Peninsular Malaysia has been fortunate to be endowed with extensive areas of valuable natural tropical rainforest which are extremely complex ecosystems are richer in tree species, than in similar areas of Africa and South America. The major consumer of timber and timber products in the domestic market is the construction industry. Timber is a versatile and durable material which found its usage in various aspects of people’s lives for thousands of years. Timber usages are well-known for their broad ranges of uses for society, for example, as a material for the construction of buildings. However, it is claimed that the demand and usage of wood among domestics are decreasing over the years. This study analysed homeowners’ attitudes and preferences towards timber as a building material. This study was conducted using a home- to-home survey to gain the maximum number of response. From the survey, all of the respondents showed positive attitudes towards timber as a building material based on their agreement on the attributes of timber as a building material. Although the attitudes were positive, their preferences were towards non-timber building materials when they renovated their house. It is often said that homeowners did not prefer timber because of negative characteristics owned by timber, but there was no actual data on the homeowners’ preferences. Therefore, this study will provide the data on the respondents’ preferences and the factors affecting towards timber as a building material. Timber can be well-marketed if the price is cost-effective and the properties are well-understood by the consumer. Other than reducing the price and promoting the usage of timber among domestics, there is also a need to educate the consumer in order for them to have a better understanding on timber.

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