Outdoor furniture wood recommendations

[dan lemkin]

I was looking to make a patio table that could weather a midatlantic winter/summer cycle without any significant maintenance...

I would love teak, but dont want to pay $22 a bdft.



Does anyone have experience with eucalyptus?

Is there a particular species of eucalyptus you recommend?

Any other recommendations?
What oil finish would you recommend applying?

How often?



thanks
dan

[Dick Sylvan]

Cypress or Spanish Cedar.

[J. Z. Guest]

I built an adirondack loveseat out of construction grade cedar from Menards. Boy, the shop smelled great for a while.

I finished it with deck stain. It is showing no signs of wear after its first Chicago winter. Putting another coat of deck stain on/in it will not take long when it does start to look tatty. Deck stain has some kind of solvent in it which makes it really sink into the wood. Don't get it on any clothes you don't want relegated to shop use only.

Don't know how much it cost, but nowhere near $22 bd/ft.

[Pete Hay]

I've found cypress to be the best balance of economy and service life. No doubt cypress is easier to obtain here in Florida than in your area, but the BORG's do carry it.

[Eric DeSilva]

+1 for cypress.

I stained an adirondack chair with pentofin (penofin?), a penetrating oil. Only with cypress, it took several weeks for the pentofin to actually pentrate...

Also wasn't too hard to get--I'm in Northern VA. Make sure you order exactly what you want and double check it--I ordered raw stock, but got S2S (? surfaced on faces), which teed me off--I still had to dimension it because of warping issues and there were plenty of pieces I couldn't get 3/4" stock out of. Live and learn.

[Joe Cunningham]

White oak might also be an option. It has to be white oak though, red oak is horrible outside from what I understand.

Recent thread on finishing white oak for outdoors:
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=106797

[Neal Clayton]

been building windows out of cypress for awhile as well.

easy to cut, easy to sand, as others say it takes awhile for penetrating oils to get in if that's how you mean to finish them, but otherwise it's great.

you can even leave them unfinished if you like the greyed look, just put a cap or some other sort of seal on the end grain that sits on the ground.

[Quinn McCarthy]

Check into getting some Ipe from brazil. It is a great outdoor wood. It is also relatively inexpensive. Many people are using it for decks. It is a very dense wood that is dark brown. Just make sure you have good carbide tools.

Also plantation grown teak is cheaper than natural. It still might not be in your budget.

Hope that helps.

Quinn

[george wilson]

In Williamsburg,all the outdoor furniture is made from cypress. You have to seal it with kilz before expecting paint to adhere

White oak is good as long as it is UNDER water. In and out of water,it isn't so good resisting rot. Red oak: you can take a piece of red oak several inches long,put one end into water,and blow through the wood and make the water bubble. You can't do that with white oak. This is why white oak is better. A piece of split out red oak is best to try this with,so the grain is parallel with the outside surface.

[Peter Quinn]

I have an outdoor shower made of eucalyptus, purchased at a garden center. It is several years old and has weathered to a light grey, seems to be surviving well, didn't cost much. I have not worked with it and don't know the sub species in the family so I have no idea exactly what my shower is made of. I just finished several pieces of furniture at work for a client made of teak, and I can tell you cost aside it is one of the least pleasant woods I have used on many levels. Just nasty stuff as far as dust, splinters on crisp edges in a most unpredictable manner, makes my skin crack and itch, hard on tools, even harder on dust collection systems, sticks to everything.

Mahogany is another option, cumaru is a possibility. I think DJ Marks was using Jarrah for out door projects, that is a type of eucalyptus, you might search for that species, I have no personal experience with it.

[Chris Tsutsui]

Maybe you could consider composite materials?

It'll look like wood, but it'll last 1000 years buried in a land fill if you ever throw it away... :D

[Jim Becker]

White Oak, Mahogany, cypress

[Todd Pretty]

Spanish Cedar.


I was told that spanish cedar is actually a type of Mahogany... does anyone else know if that's true.

[Mark Norman]

Just make it BIG!!
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=106664

[dan lemkin]

Would this work? I got one of these bundles... looks like nice stuff.

http://www.exoticlumberinc.com/specials_lg.php?id=12

They also have us and australian cypress... is there a difference?

thanks

[Gary Herrmann]

I've had good luck with white oak and deck finish.

[Dave Bureau]

I just got done making some adirondack chairs out of cypress. I'm not goiing to finish them. just leave natural. cypress is 4.20 bd ft here.

[Jim Kountz]

+1 for cypress

[Von Bickley]

I would vote for white oak or cypress.....

[David Keller NC]

"I was told that spanish cedar is actually a type of Mahogany... does anyone else know if that's true."

Nope. Totally different family. Finished, however, its appearance resembles mahogany, and its cheaper, so it's often used as a substitute.

To the OP: Most of the alternatives mentioned in this thread (Spanish Cedar, Cypress, Western Cedar, Eastern Red Cedar) are relatively soft woods compared to the Teak you're trying to substitute for. If you want a hard wood that's cheaper, go with (genuine) South American Mahogany. You can get this wood relatively cheaply if it's not high grade, which I'd assume is not terribly important for outdoor furniture. Steve Wall Lumber has a lesser grade of mahogany that's pretty inexpensive.

[Ben Abate]

Maybe you could consider composite materials?

It'll look like wood, but it'll last 1000 years buried in a land fill if you ever throw it away... :D


Chris,

Where would you purchase the composite material? Today I was asked to bid on a commercial job and I'm thinking a composite material may be the ticket. I remember at some point I had a link but no longer. Who knows, I may have a local distributor in my area. What is the material called? is there a brand name?

thanks
Ben