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Q: Is the cost of house-building lumber higher in China?
I am designing a house to live in. I noticed the building materials in China are almost strictly concrete 
Is it because cement is cheap and wood is expensive? I can't even find building lumber in the stores. What is the reason for this? I do not want cold concrete walls in my house!
You will need to source the lumber yourself, only poor people in villages seem to use timber for housing i dont know if the reasons for this is cost or just people not really knowing about a wood house being better if its built well ( i think they just see it as being poor and too natural) If you are looking for finished timber for a cladding type project you need to find a merchant selling this, its hard but i cant help need to talk to some Chinese builders who do something similar...if your looking for American Log Cabin style Lumber you will find smaller dimensions quite easily in the countryside(where there are tree) but it is generally small dimensions.
If you are looking for good quality timber with larger dimensions I think you will have a hard job, I would base any building projects on a cement framing with timber walls...could even think about some kind of internal/external timber cladding...
I dont have any plans to build anything at the moment, have no where near enough cash but have been looking into it as its one of my dreams...
Where will you build it? I lived in Yunnan for several years and studied the wood house building technics of the Naxi people and we still dream of build a wood house someday here. The price of lumber is cheaper than it is in the USA, but like Oushan Mu says, it is usually un-milled product.
