Lumber for Outdoor use

[Ed Wedin]

I am about to tackle the ubiquitous farmhouse table. I live in the Houston, TX area where the humidity ranges from 30% to 100%. This table will be on my covered patio. What wood do you recommend? I would like to use cedar, but am worried about warping/cupping. Thx

[Matt Day]

I don't know all about it by any means, but I'm building a mailbox post for 3 boxes using cedar and will finish with minwax helmsman spar urethane, and will plan to revisit every couple/few years. (I will also treat the wood for rot/bugs that will be in the ground).

[John TenEyck]

Cedar, redwood, and lots of other good choices if it's going to be on a covered deck. Spar varnish might even work on a covered deck, but it would be a poor choice with direct exposure to sun and rain. Most don't last a year. Paint is best, then high end catalyzed products, followed by marine varnish like Epifanes. Deck oil works fairly well, too, with yearly maintenance. Any finish = maintenance, sooner or later.

John

[Jim Becker]

White Oak (not red) would be my choice for durable outdoor projects.

[Darcy Warner]

Cypress, redwood, cedar, sapele,

[Doug Hepler]

Ed,

My favorite would be cypress. As others have suggested, redwood, cedar, and white oak are also good choices. Clearly the most protective finish would be paint, especially marine paint, but it would obscure the grain. I prefer to finish outdoor furniture with McCloskey Man-O-War or Epifanes spar varnish. This is expensive and takes many coats but it will last a long time in Houston under a porch roof. You are welcome to check Chapter 6 of my book. This chapter discusses wood for outdoor furniture in more detail.

Doug

[Yonak Hawkins]

Don't forget teak, mahogany or ipe.

[William Young]

As far as an outdoor finish is concerned, be sure to look into using exterior paint without the color added. I have used an exterior Sherwin Williams (brand doesn't matter) oil base tint base 3 without the color added. I know for a fact that it dries clear. The idea is that as a paint, it has all the UV protection and should hold up well on outdoor furniture, but without the color, the wood grain still shows. There are articles on the web and it may have been discussed in this forum.

[Jason Mikits]

I use black locust for almost everything that is outdoor use. From Adirondack chairs, upper deck flooring, and fence posts. The old saying says "Put a rock on top of the fence post, when it wears down, replace the post.

[Ed Wedin]

Thanks for all y'alls suggestions. I definitely want the wood grain to show, so paint is not an option. I would love to use cypress or redwood, but cost is important.

[Malcolm McLeod]

In your neck of the woods, cypress gets 2 thumbs up - cost and weather-ability. I got good price and service from Specialty Lumber in Maringouin, LA, now Cypress Wood & Lumber (and I'm just a customer).

[Darcy Warner]

Cypress should be cheap in TX, up north is where it gets expensive.

[Randall J Cox]

After much research, I just finished two outdoor (non covered) 52" dia octagon tables out of white oak. It was pricy as it had to come from the east coast I would guess. I live on the west coast. My first picnic table out of redwood lasted 20 years and was in fairly decent shape (Penofin each spring) until one year I sanded it down and put minwax spar varnish on it. Then it just sort of started to disintegrate. Cedar would also probably be a good choice. No film for outside unless you want to keep renewing it every couple of years, I'd recommend some sort of oil. Randy

[Ted Phillips]

Since you want to see the wood grain, I would highly recommend sealing/priming the wood with Clear Penetrating Epoxy Sealer (CPES). There are several good brands out there, but my favorite is the product from Smiths. I've also used Total Boat from Jamestown Distributors, and it is good stuff. After putting a couple of thin coats of CPES down, you can apply as many top coats of varnish as you like for UV protection. Personally, I use Total Boat Lust Marine Varnish - it is one-part (no mixing) and dries quicker than most spar varnishes allowing you to add multiple coats per day.

Oh yeah. One more point. Make sure to apply the CPES and varnish outdoors - I almost got divorced after making that mistake one weekend...