Meranti wood is one of the original types of wood from Indonesia. Because it is a tropical plant that spread throughout most of Indonesia areas, meranti also has various local names, such as sirantih, damar, kenuar, Lampung, bapa wood, banio, and so on. Even in western terms, this wood called meranti, although some call it lauan and Filipino mahogany, although it is not mahogany.

Meranti trees are perennials that can grow to more than 40 meters height. Its diameter can reach 1.5 meters with dry weight average of 675 kg/m3. Generally, meranti wood has dark reddish or purplish-brown interspersed with white resin veins. Meranti wood of high quality generally comes from Kalimantan, therefore meranti wood also often referred to as Kalimantan wood.

Meranti Wood Variant
Like many other types of wood, meranti wood also has several variants: red meranti, white meranti, yellow meranti, and balau. Red meranti grows a lot in Kalimantan, Sumatra, and Maluku. White meranti has spread in Kalimantan, Sumatra, Sulawesi, and Maluku. Meanwhile, yellow meranti grows in Kalimantan and almost all areas of Sumatra. In addition, there is also a type of meranti that rarely mentioned: Javanese meranti, which is an endemic plant on Nusakambangan island, Central Java.

Meranti Wood Advantages
Meranti wood is easy to dry, either when it is naturally dried in the sun or in the oven. This drying is generally done to keep the size of meranti to not shrink. Meranti wood is known as a light weight hardwood. Meranti wood has elongated fibers, so it is often used as wooden beam. More than that, meranti wood also known to not easily bouncy and easy to process for various purposes.

Apart from its main function as wood raw material, the meranti tree is also a producer of resin for varnishes, lacquers, adhesives, and so on. This resin-producing meranti tree is type of red meranti. In addition, this tree also produces tengkawang fruit, vegetable oil ingredients and food mixtures.

The Disadvantages of Meranti Wood
One of the main drawbacks of meranti wood is not very durable. Meranti wood categorized as durable class III-IV, which is only able to last up about ten years. To work around this, meranti wood usually added with wood preservatives such as a mixture of creosol and diesel. Meranti wood is also not resistant to exposure of outside weather and high humidity. Therefore, meranti wood is not suitable for outdoor use and is not ideal to placed in direct contact with the ground. Another disadvantage of meranti is the expensive price.

Meranti Wood Benefits
From a practical point of view, meranti wood is capable house building material. You can use them as beams, girders, windows, doors, rafters, roof trusses, floors, to house frames. Apart from being a building material, meranti also commonly used as furniture material, plywood material, and veneer for finishing plywood or other panels.

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