Prices for Redwood

[Gary Herrmann]

My wife wants me to make an umbrella table out of Redwood. I found a local place that sells it for $6.99 per board ft. Ouch. If I don't find another option, I'll probably go with White Oak or something else I can get from my usual source for a much better price.

But she asked for Redwood. Has anyone recently bought Redwood online for a good price? Can you share your source? I haven't designed the thing yet, but the picture she showed me has a solid top and 4 solid sides that go all the way to the ground - so it will be a decent amount of boards. I guess I can redesign to reduce the amount of wood used...

[Joe Jensen]

The redwood at the box stores seems very soft, I would want to use it. For that price I think you could find plantation Teak which is very weather resistant. I would not use oak. I would use Cedar, Redwood, Cyprus or Teak. Maybe some other exotic like Ipe. All would be around $6/7 per bd ft...joe

[Vaughn McMillan]

Ouch indeed! Do they not sell redwood (or perhaps cedar) at your local Borgs? I recently bought ten 8' redwood 2x4s and a couple 8' 2x12s for under $150 at Lowes. Sounds like redwood pricing is as variable region-wise as cherry and maple. (Frankly, I think I'd rather live where cherry and maple are inexpensive and redwood is not.)

- Vaughn

[Gary Herrmann]

Must be location. Borgs here cell cedar, but it's very, very knotty. Ipe on special order. I called one place about Teak, and they quoted $24.50 per board foot. Yikes.

[Jamie Buxton]

I live in what used to be redwood country -- northern california. The old-growth trees are gone or protected. The zillion-rings-per-inch wood which might be suitable for furniture is recovered salvage and is quite expensive. What is now in the lumberyards is from second- or third-growth logging. It is rather soft, and is not suitable for furniture at all. When I need a reddish softwood, I use western red cedar. It grows over a much wider range, and clear tight lumber is still available. Around here it costs $6 per bdft or so. The next time someone asks me for outdoor furniture, I'm going with hardwood. White oak is virtually the same price, and lasts well outside. It is also a renewable resource, and old-growth cedar isn't. Another possibility is deck-building tropical woods like ipe. Here, ipe is also in the same price range as white oak and western red cedar. I've had a wide variety of experience with ipe. Some mills and glues well. Other ipe has ropy grain that doesn't plane well, or high silicates which dull plane blades quickly.

[Jesse Cloud]

You can get good quality cypress from Steve Wall lumber for $2.40 a board foot. Cypress has great water resistance and machines well. It is a little soft, but works fine for outdoor projects. I make adirondack chairs out of cypress and they look good and handle the weather well.

BTW, there's a great article in the Oct 2005 issue of Fine Woodworking that shows how to use clear penetrating expoxy sealer and marine grade varnish as a finish. I tried it and it looks great and is darn near indestructible.

Let us know what you go with.

Jess

[Steve Schoene]

The redwood at the box stores seems very soft, I would want to use it. For that price I think you could find plantation Teak which is very weather resistant. I would not use oak. I would use Cedar, Redwood, Cyprus or Teak. Maybe some other exotic like Ipe. All would be around $6/7 per bd ft...joe

Where can you find Teak at $7.00 per board foot? And do they ship?

[Jamie Buxton]

Where can you find Teak at $7.00 per board foot? And do they ship?

This won't help you very much, but I just bought plantation-grown teak at MacBeath Lumber, in San Francisco, for about $6 bdft. The stuff is all short -- maybe 6' long, max -- that that's okay for many projects. It is also full of silica, and dulls jointer knives quite quickly. MacBeath might well ship, but freight to Connecticut must be high. If MacBeath is selling the stuff here on the West Coast, I'll bet there's somebody closer to you selling essentially the same product.

[Aaron Beaver]

I am in the process of building a potting bench out of redwood. I got it from a local supplier that sells it and cedar for decks, fences, etc. I really don't like it because of how SOFT it is, I mean its really SOFT. You can't drop anything on it, dent, can't let it fall over if standing up, dent. It machines very easily though which is good but just to soft for my taste.

I like the way it looks, but if I had it to do over I probably would pick a different kind of wood that is good for outside. Or I could use any wood and protect it really well with a marine finish or something similiar.

[Andy Hoyt]

With apologies to OP Gary Herrmann and all others who participated in this thread last spring.

I have just edited it to remove the questionable content brought about by its resurrection yesterday and to restore it's continuity. I've also just sent a PM to the party responsible and am hopeful that this is the end of it.

Thanks,

Andy Hoyt
SMC Moderator

[Greg Funk]

Andy,

On what basis did you remove all the posts from this thread? I found them quite informative and useful and I didn't notice anything that violated any SMC rules.

Greg

[Jim Becker]

Greg and others, please address moderation questions on this thread via PM to Andy. There is more than one thread involved. Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

Jim
SMC Moderator.

[Greg Funk]

Why so cryptic in a public forum?

[Jim Becker]

We are no longer discussing moderation issues in threads.

Please see this stickied thread in the Support Forum: http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=47292

Jim
SMC Moderator

[Dave Falkenstein]

Gary - It sounds like the price you were quoted was for clear redwood, which can be pretty expensive. In my part of the country, AZ, construction grade redwood is readily available from lumber yards at about $1.50 per linear foot for 2X6, for example. That is roughly $1.50 a bf. If you can buy it in St. Louis, consider using construction grade redwood - it tends to be quite straight and good looking - a few knots of course. In AZ Home Depot sells clear redwood in 1X sizes, but it is very pricey.

[Aaron Beaver]

Greg and others, please address moderation questions on this thread via PM to Andy. There is more than one thread involved. Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

Jim
SMC Moderator.

Hey, what happened to my post I made yesterday... it had nothing to do with the other post, it ONLY related to the topic, so why was it deleted???

[Jim Becker]

Fixed, Aaron. It was likely inadvertant.

[Ray Moser]

In the Fall of 2004 I had storm damage to the teak swim deck of our boat. I found a source of teak and was quoted $16/bf. I said I would be there the next Spring to get some and was told that they expected the price to double when they reordered-needless to say I went and got the teak then and there.