Wood choice in desert climate?

[Brian Austin]

A friend has asked me to build a gate with matching fence for his Scottsdale home. The home is a fairly typical Southwest motif, with Spanish, Mexican and American influences. He's decided the gate should be very sturdy but wants exposed wood with a spar varnish finish. (existing gate shown below, about 5' high for scale)

He's basing this on a piece of a large beam (appears to be a gluelam) that sits over the existing gate. (Pic below, labeled beam.jpg)

The existing beam is heavily finished with spar varnish and sits in the shade for most of the day. It's sticky right now, which tells me it's heating up a little too much. The wood appears to be a 'distressed' close grain pine of some sort. I've matched the 'distressed' look with a torch and some sandpaper in the past.

The owner would like a similar finish on the gate.

1. I'm not sure this wood is going to put up with 115 degree heat over time. Any clues on a wood species to consider here?

2. This finish isn't going to cut it for me. I can't imagine putting my hands on a gate to open it and getting sticky all the time. Any ideas?

Thanks for any input!

[Jim Becker]

It's not the heat that's gonna get it...it's the sun. Film finishes are gonna be whacked by the combination of heat and UV! But I'd use Douglas Fir if you can get it, and it will look real close to what you have, if it isn't DF already.

[Brian Austin]

It's not the heat that's gonna get it...it's the sun. Film finishes are gonna be whacked by the combination of heat and UV! But I'd use Douglas Fir if you can get it, and it will look real close to what you have, if it isn't DF already.
I think it is DF. It's used quite a bit in 'gluelam' applications, apparently.

I was thinking a penetrating oil of some sort. It would require an annual re-application but would hold up longer.

[Jim W. White]

I live in southern Idaho and we get a fair amount of intense sun (not quite soutern Arizona but...)

I've had good luck with Cabot's exterior stains. You could easily color match that peice with there line of exterior stains on Fir.

my 2 cents,

Jim W

[Michael Perata]

It's not the heat that's gonna get it...it's the sun.

Time to recount a tale of one of life's hard earned bits of wisdom.

Back in the mid 70's I worked for a major California homebuilder that decided to take a foray into the Phoenix market. They had very good success in So. California with a particular style of house and decided to build the series in Phoenix. These houses all had truss roof systems.

As is the wont of most merchant builders, production starts before the streets are done and in the case of the Phoenix project, there was a grade differential of about three feet from the sidewalk to the center of the street, meaning the middle distance was three feet lower than the sidewalk.

At the time, we bought all of trusses from a yard halfway between LA and San Diego.

Well, to make long story shorter, the jobsite super asks for a delivery of trusses for 10 houses. Four or five truck/trailer rigs show up on a over 100d SATURDAY afternoon and since no one is around, they off-load all the trusses, carefully putting one end where the sidewalk would go, and the other end in the middle of the street.

Monday morning rolls arond and the framing crews show up to stack all the roofs and find 10 houses worth of perfectly and PERMANENTLY bent trusses.

Jim - trust me, it can be simply the heat. :(

[John Hemenway]

Michael, was it a lot harder installing the new, improved bentwood trusses? :)

Back to the regularly scheduled program...

Looks like DF to me too. I would go with whatever oil sealer deck builders in the area use. I bet they don't use something that stays sticky. :)

[Kelly C. Hanna]

Brian, that is Pine but it's not a glue-lam from what I can tell. It's a solid Pine beam (probably Ponderosa Pine). SYP or the white Pine stocked for fences will match it ok with the same finish, BUT...as Jim said the sun will bake any finish right off in the desert heat.

You're best bet is to stain it with exterior fence stain to compliment the beam. Matching it will be easy with a torch, stain to tint and poly, but it will be gone in a few months. I grew up in Alamogordo, NM and know the climate well.

[Vaughn McMillan]

Brian, years ago in high school shop class I built a entry gate for my parent's house in Albuquerque, using douglas fir and finishing it with Cabot's exterior oil stain. It held up well through desert heat and winter snow for 16 or 17 years until the house was sold and the new owners swapped it for a different style. I'm not positive, but I don't think the gate was ever refinished after I built it.

- Vaughn

[Dave Falkenstein]

Hi Brian - As you know I also live in the Valley of the Sun. I have had to repair several large gates made by so-called professionals. Most were made from pine or doug fir, and they had dried out, sagged and come apart. The gate at my house is 11 years old and is a tublar steel frame with cedar pickets. I use Watco clear outdoor oil finish, and that holds up reasonably well - needs restaining every year or two. I would strongly recommend against spar varnish, or any other finish that sits on the surface of the wood. An alternate material choice is redwood. Use stainless steel hardware to avoid bleeding from the hardware to the wood. Email me if you want any more details.

[Brian Austin]

Hi Brian - As you know I also live in the Valley of the Sun. I have had to repair several large gates made by so-called professionals. Most were made from pine or doug fir, and they had dried out, sagged and come apart. The gate at my house is 11 years old and is a tublar steel frame with cedar pickets. I use Watco clear outdoor oil finish, and that holds up reasonably well - needs restaining every year or two. I would strongly recommend against spar varnish, or any other finish that sits on the surface of the wood. An alternate material choice is redwood. Use stainless steel hardware to avoid bleeding from the hardware to the wood. Email me if you want any more details.
Well, the gate pictured is probably over ten years old with what appears to be two coats of paint. I wouldn't be surprised to see any pine species deteriorate like that in this environment.

The steel and wood gates that most of us have (I've got two of them, both custom built by my neighbor) won't work here, unfortunately. And redwood just isn't going to match the house style at all. It's probably going to be pine, maybe a SYP just to get a slightly stronger grain?

I like the SS hardware idea. I'll have to see what's available but again, there is a style we're aiming for here.

Nice to see you on in the middle of summer, Dave. Up in Flag, still?

[Kelly C. Hanna]

If you use SYP, you won't need stainless connectors. Use the hot dipped galvanized or the green decking screws from HD's or Lowe's (HD's are better since they are dual drive and can take square drive bits...they won't strip out nearly as easily). All the treated stuff is SYP here, so we work with it 80% of the time.

[Dave Falkenstein]

Nice to see you on in the middle of summer, Dave. Up in Flag, still?

Brian, Yep - in Pinewood, near Flagstaff, since mid-May. The high yesterday was about 85. Need I say more? Stay cool - somehow.

[Brian Austin]

Brian, Yep - in Pinewood, near Flagstaff, since mid-May. The high yesterday was about 85. Need I say more? Stay cool - somehow.
Every place I go is pretty much a/c now. Garage and shop are both cooled to 85 unless I bump the temp down even more. Even the new 5th wheel has a/c. ;)