Wood for house numbers

[Geoffrey Frey]

I was asked by a coworker to make some house/address numbers. It sounds like she wants them painted. My question is what wood is appropriate for this? I have treated spruce, but have found that paint doesn't want to stick to it very well. My next thought was Baltic birch and treating it with copper naphthenate and topcoating it. My third option is white oak and paint. I also have some PVC trim board kicking around. The paint/topcoat will probably be something like Rustolium alkalyd spray bomb. I was mostly thinking ease of application, but I could get some outdoor paint. Thoughts? It has also occurred to me there is a reason why most people go with metal house numbers.

*Thank you for your responses and suggestions. PVC it is!

[Frank Pratt]

If they are to be painted I would consider the PVC trim stock.

[Jim Becker]

If they are to be painted I would consider the PVC trim stock.

I agree with Frank that you should use a material that isn't prone to splitting on the grain or physical weakness for the same reason (or that will rot over time) since these numbers will be painted. Use the PVC.

[Geoffrey Frey]

Thank you! I will do that.

[Patrick Kane]

Agree with other comments, but if this is under an awning or covered porch, any wood with a proper exterior grade paint is going to weather pretty well. If its exposed to rain and snow 365 then you need to concern yourself with wood species/other materials. My opinion based on things ive made that are painted, exposed to the elements and 4-5 years at this point. None of them are showing much wear at this point, and would look brand new if they werent wet half the year.

[Bill Dufour]

I have never seen any for sale that are not redwood or cedar.
Bill

[Lee Schierer]

PVC is the best choice for this.

[David Buchhauser]

I agree that the PVC would be the best choice for the sake of longevity.
David

[Keith Outten]

PVC is a good choice and I suggest you paint the letters with Fusion plastic paint. The Fusion texture paint has an amazing bond.
Use keyholes on each letter to hang them.

[Edwin Santos]

I'm not sure how you were planning on cutting the numbers. Maybe a scroll saw or bandsaw?

Anyway, you might consider buying a Trex gate/fence slat from Home Depot or another home center. It's an extruded composite material with a simulated wood finish. If you like the finish, then just paint the edges. A single slat might give you what you need, for under $10.

[Steve Kohn]

I took a bit of a different approach for my house number when the wood ones rotted. I took a scrap of PVC trim, left white, as the backer board. For the letters and numbers I went to a countertop shop and they gave me sink cut outs of almost black solid surface material that was 3/4 inch thick. I used stainless steel screws from the back to hold it together. It's been about 5 years now, totally exposed to the weather, with no degradation.

[Edwin Santos]

I took a bit of a different approach for my house number when the wood ones rotted. I took a scrap of PVC trim, left white, as the backer board. For the letters and numbers I went to a countertop shop and they gave me sink cut outs of almost black solid surface material that was 3/4 inch thick. I used stainless steel screws from the back to hold it together. It's been about 5 years now, totally exposed to the weather, with no degradation.

That sounds about as bulletproof as you can get. I'm curious though, how did you go about cutting the granite pieces into numbers?

[Andrew Seemann]

If you go with painted wood letters, as important, or maybe even more important, than the topcoat is the primer. A good oil-based primer will do wonders and will have much better adhesion than water based primer or just paint on the wood.

[Wayne Cannon]

MDO plywood is designed for signs and is surprisingly good for exterior weather, even unpainted -- assuming plywood edge grain is ok for your application. I had some "temporary" gates made from raw MDO plywood (no paint, no edge treatment, nothing) for about five years and, other than a color change, were as good as new when I finally replaced them.

[William Hodge]

In my town, we didn't have house numbers until a few years ago. After a house fire with fatalities, the fire department asked people to put up green and white reflective house numbers, that they sold at cost. It helps first responders from outside of Town that don't know everyone.

[Jason Mikits]

That sounds about as bulletproof as you can get. I'm curious though, how did you go about cutting the granite pieces into numbers?

He said solid surface, which is generally a mineral filled acrylic resin. Most people think of Corian® when solid surface is mentioned. It is easily cut with carbide tooling.

[Pete Staehling]

In my town, we didn't have house numbers until a few years ago. After a house fire with fatalities, the fire department asked people to put up green and white reflective house numbers, that they sold at cost. It helps first responders from outside of Town that don't know everyone.
Where we lived before we moved here those were required. They actually fined you if you didn't comply. Some folks still had decorative wood numbers too.

I think if I were doing wood/pvc numbers choice of material might depend on the size of the numbers. If they were real big where checking/splitting would be much less of an issue, I might use cypress or cedar. Nice clear cypress is available here so that is what I'd use for big fat numbers. I guess the size would depend on how far away they were expected to be seen and read from. Cypress holds up to the weather really well as does cedar.

[Jim Becker]

That sounds about as bulletproof as you can get. I'm curious though, how did you go about cutting the granite pieces into numbers?
Solid Surface material is "plastic"...think Corian for a brand name. It cuts and works beautifully with woodworking tools.

[Yonak Hawkins]

They actually fined you if you didn't comply.

I wish they did that with businesses.