Patio furniture design

[Gary Herrmann]

My wife wants me to make an umbrella table. I can't lay my hands on any nice cedar, so I'm going to use qsawn and riftsawn white oak (she can't stand the cathedral look).

I assume typical indoor furniture construction isn't a great idea for outdoors. I'll need gaps between the boards for allowing rain etc to drip through the top, as well as allow for expansion and contraction - maybe with slightly elongated screw holes?

If I use waterproof glues, can I use indoor design techniques or will that not allow for enough movement?

I assume I don't want to have end grain resting on the ground because it will wick so much moisture.

Any advice for an outdoor newbie is appreciated...

[Ben Grunow]

I have made outdoor furniture using pegged M&T joints and gorilla glue (foaming polyurethane) with success. I like to leave 1/8" minimum for leaves and debris to fall through, more is better. The scale of outdoor furniture usually requires larger members than interior items (1 1/2" thick legs instead of 1" stock etc), otherwise things can be unstable (warp and twist) and the members just need to be bigger so they look the right size when taken ouside. Depending on the level of sophistication of your furniture, you could use small pads of corian, azek (pvc boards available at lumber yard), or even cast aluminum 4x4 post bases (the kind that nail on the bottom of deck posts) for the end grain conditions. Most furniture I've seen just has the end grain resting on the ground though or maybe a small tack on pad. I seem to remember reading a recent post about white oak for outdoor furniture and appropriate finishes. Think the consensus was to let it weather and after an ugly year it turns silver. Some searching should find this post (I read it this week). Good luck.

[Kevin Morton]

I'd second Ben's advice except I'd stay clear of Gorilla glue. It's a mess to worth with and Titebond III is now out and is waterproof. It's a breeze to use and cleans up with water.

For tabletops where the slats are over 4" wide, I'd go with a 1/4" gap. Wood really moves outside!

As for end grain, I used to coat it with a two-part epoxy (West or System 3) but I'm going to try coating exposed ends with Titebond III and see how it does.

Good luck!