Western Red Cedar vs. White Cedar

[Greg Cuetara]

I am in the process of rebuilding and installing a deck behind my house. I have narrowed the choices down to Western Red Cedar or White Cedar. I have ruled out the composites...mostly due to the cost but also the fact that they are not really not no maintenance. I am upgrading from PT so I think either cedar will be a major upgrade.

I was told that WRC has more rot resistant properties but not sure if there is a real big difference or if it is just the look. White vs Red etc. I am actually thinking about staining it to match the house so the color doesn't really make a difference.

I am also looking at some sort of hidden fastener system. I looked at the deckmaster products today at the local lumberyard and they had a price of $388 for a box of 100. If I look on the deckmaster website they sell the same box for $300 with free shipping. I would like to support the local yard but hard to do that when the price is that much more. I asked the guy why it was more and he couldn't answer me. I also saw the tiger claw system that Home Deposit has which is probably about the same price. Any other suggestions out there for hidden fastener systems or where to buy them?

Thanks,
Greg

[Jake Helmboldt]

WRC is very soft. I'm not sure how soft white cedar is. I would be concerned about the wear of WRC in a deck, though I'm sure plenty have used if for that application.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

Greg, I looked at a brochure from a company that makes fantastic playground equipment, and they use white cedar. The say it is more rot resistant then WRC, and weathers better. I don't know, I've never used white cedar, but I'm curious too.

[Greg Cuetara]

Steve,
I do see a lot of playground equipment made out of cedar. Guess it is all better than PT.
Greg

[Terry Achey]

Greg,

I have no experience with whoite cedar, but I did use quite a bit of t&g WRC for portions of my rec room. Really nice looking clear lumber and I like it alot. However, it is quite soft and I would think that foot traffic would scuff and scar the wood rather easily. Soft enough that you can easily mark the wood with fingernail pressure.


Terry