Window wood?

[Baldhead]

What sort of wood should I use to make a new window? The finished article will be painted.

Stew

 

[Woody2Shoes]

Centre-free redwood or Accoya would be my two preferred choices, cheers, W2S

 

[skipdiver]

Quality Redwood. Need a second mortgage for Accoya. :shock:

 

[RobinBHM]

Plenty of choice; unsorted redwood (joiners often buy 63mm x 225mm, do 1 rip from each edge and throw out the centre), laminated softwood, laminated red grandis, sapele, utile, iroko, idigbo, accoya.

I tend to use iroko for frames and accoya for sashes.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

My mother had a beautiful house built about 35 years ago, and had all the joinery done in iroko. Bad move, the large stuff was fine but the meeting rails were dreadful, some warped both towards each other so they clashed, some both away from each other so the wind howled through them. One or two warped in a matched pair so didn't matter.

 

[Logger]

If painted, then douglas fir or larch are good. Very durable and takes paint well. Easy to machine as well. Barecin mind though that larch blunts blades quickly which is a pain.

For more durability, you can use western red cedar. Paints ok and has durability of oak. More expensive than doug fir though.

Don't make the mistake of using oak and painting it. You will be painting them every 2 years as the oils in oak react and make the paint blister.

I have just made 12 windows for customer in douglas fir with slimlite glass. Got another 2 window jobs on, one oak with oil finish, one painted in doug fir.

Cheers

Nick

 

[RobinBHM]

My mother had a beautiful house built about 35 years ago, and had all the joinery done in iroko. Bad move, the large stuff was fine but the meeting rails were dreadful, some warped both towards each other so they clashed, some both away from each other so the wind howled through them. One or two warped one in matched a matched pair so didn't matter.

I think there must have been a problem with the batch of timber used to manufacture the windows. It could have been a kilning fault or maybe the joiners paid no heed to selecting the best boards for critical components like door stiles and/or used bad boards that should have been rejected.

Iroko comes from Ghana, Ivory coast, Camaroon. Ivory coast material is considered the most mild working and to some extent that is true, but much depends on the individual trees location and the care taken in seasoning. Trees that grew on the edge of the Savannah probably would be buffeted by winds and contain tension wood whilst trees in the middle of a densely forested area are likely to have mild straight grained timber.

I find that iroko boards, when cut can sometimes release huge amounts of tension causing big bows or splits. This can even happen during planing or rebating operations. However, in service Ive found iroko to be a very stable material with minimal shrinkage of other movement. Over the last 16 years Ive only had to remake a handful of door or window sashes due to timber movement.

 

[Dusty]

I have recently made 9 windows using Seasoned Douglas Fir and couldnt of been more suprised by its ease of use , It is apparently one of the hardest soft woods . It machined like a dream and took machined edges well and profiles too . The only recommendation is to make sure you have sharp blades and tooling as when it is seasoned it hardens like a decent hardwood . I was that hard that I found it nion impossible to chisel out for the hinges by hand as it the chisel would literally bounce . I ended up using a hinge jig and the problem was solved .

Apparently it can be tricky to paint due to the high resin content , so I primed with Alu Primer as used on harwood , then the usual primer , undercoat and topcoat , they were fitted at chrimbo and now still look good and show no signs of paint problems / flaking / bubbling etc .

Key thing is sharp tooling / blades .

I think it is very underated as a joinery timber , It makes a very good substitute for Pitch Pine , the grain is very similar . I buy mine for £10.50 per cubic foot , and had let it dry for 18 months outside and then 6 inside the workshop . Very pleasent and cheap to work with .

Cheers Dusty

 

[Logger]

Some of the bigger window companies are starting to offer douglas fir windows as an option.

It is really underrated, but other joiners i know have used it for a while as well. It works well for machining new skirting boards and i recently used it making stringers for a staircase. Really well priced too.

I always think iroko and sepele are too good to paint.

Nick

 

[Cinimod]

Can't resist it.......................I find glass ones better......dom

 

[Logger]

Drat, that's where i have been going wrong.

To be fair though, my customers have not had to waste money on curtains

 

[Cinimod]

Drat, that's where i have been going wrong.

To be fair though, my customers have not had to waste money on curtains

:lol: :lol: .....dom

 

[PAC1]

Indigo can react with paint. I have seen and heard of problems with the paint on end grain reacting. But if not painted, stained Idigbo is a good choice.. Easy to work, cheap and not too heavy.

 

[yetloh]

Accoya is claimed not to be subject to seasonal movement like natural timber so, at least theoretically, paint should be less likely to crack at the joints and so last longer. Does anyone know whether the theory is borne out in practice?

Jim

 

[MMUK]

Personally I refuse to make windows from softwood of any kind for a habitable dwelling. Most of the timber windows I've made have been either Oak or Mahogany. Mahogany I prefer as it's easier for me to work with, and it smells nicer in the workshop too

 

[RobinBHM]

Accoya is claimed not to be subject to seasonal movement like natural timber so, at least theoretically, paint should be less likely to crack at the joints and so last longer. Does anyone know whether the theory is borne out in practice?

Jim

Movement is reduced and accoya is very stable. Ive never seen any component made in accoya warp, ie cup, twist, bow. Accoya does expand and contract a bit though. Certainly the bottom rail of a door and sash will expand so it ends up slightly below the stile.

Accoya is quite brittle and also soft, so it needs some care in manufacture.

 

[yetloh]

Thanks Robin, that's useful to know.

Jim