Advice, please: SpeciesChoice for painted gate

[J.A.S]

Dear All,

I have to make a garden/front gate for a relative, and naturally thought that iroko would be the way to go, given its strength and durability.

However, the gate has to be painted :evil:, so I am concerned that iroko's natural oils (have I got that right? Never usesd it before) might not take the paint.

Any thoughts, chaps?

Thanks.
Jeremy

 

[Anonymous]

cedar is supposed to be good for outdoors stuff as it is rot-resistant and isn't oily so will take varnish/paint quite happily. its also very light which reduces the weight on the hinges and takes less effort to shove open. On the downside its fairly soft so might show knocks

seems a shame to use decent wood then paint it.....how about an oiled finish as per garden funiture?

m

 

[trevtheturner]

Hi Jeremy,

If the gate must be painted any decent softwood, knot-free if possible, would be quite adequate. However, for durability, it would need to be properly protected with an exterior painting system.

On moving to my present house nine years ago I made a softwood gate which I then treated with the Dulux Weathershield system: preservative/primer, undercoat and then topcoat. It has had one maintenance treatment since (u/c and topcoat) and is still as good as new. (For those of you wondering - it fits into 7' archway in a wall adjacent to white garage doors - that's why it's painted :wink: ).

There should be no problem with strength if timbers of sufficient size are used.

Trev.