Can someone help me choose a wood type.

[ByronBlack]

My partner and I are trying to make a small weekend busines in selling planters, and plant staging. However, I don't know which wood to use that is stable and cheap enough to make a reasonable profit.

I've been trying to use tanalised 5"x2" (re-sawn into 15mm thick boards) from the local builders merchant (works out at £2 for 3 1m boards), but after following a proceadure of planning and putting in sticks, i'm still getting cupping and warping. So this is discounted.

I need to find a supplier that can do mail order and delivery, and a species of wood that is relatively cheap and will survive outside (I'm prepared to coat the wood in cuprinol or something similar).

Advice will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Jake]

Re-sawing tanalised wood is a bit dodgy, loads of heavy metals in the tanalising solution.

Larch is the most durable softwood. I've never bought any so I have no idea how pricey it is.

 

[edmund]

Byron, you can have a look at western red cedar. Some info and suppliers in this link http://www.ttf.co.uk/buying/directory/products.asp?productid=85. I've used it when it comes cut for use as garden borders for making brush showjumps (and with an couple of coats of oil based preservatives). It's not as dense as pine, but it's durable. I've had the same problems of cupping when resawing pressure treated or tannalised timber. I think this may be because of moisture change resulting in the untreated core being exposed to moisture. If you're resawing treated timber you'll have to retreat anyway.
Hope this helps a bit. E

 

[LyNx]

cedar :wink: :wink:

 

[Chris Knight]

Byron,

Dog hasn't been around for a while but he was making planters in quantity - see here for a word on his wood https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/forums/view ... 6264#36264

 

[ByronBlack]

Thanks for the suggestions. It seams then that it's a toss-up between larch and cedar. I've already found some suppliers for cedar, but can't seem to find any for rough-sawn larch, can anyone point me in the direction? Google doesn't seem to be much help.

 

[Johnboy]

Byron, Ebfield timber are not far from you a stock Western Red Cedar according to their website.

http://www.enfieldtimber.co.uk/enfield-timber-company-timber-merchants-softwoods.htm

John

 

[ByronBlack]

Cheers Johnboy, just gave them a call and have quoted me £1.84 per foot of 6"x1" Cedar. This works out a little expensive as they only sell them in 12foot boards.

SLHardwoods have a range of woods that are cheaper, but not sure how suitable they'll be, for example: Idigbo, Douglas Fir, Pine Parana, American White Oak, American Ash..

Would any of these be suitable? Even with their delivery charge, they work out cheaper than going to my local (enfield timber) which is a shame.

 

[Johnboy]

Blimey, I make that £44 a cubic foot. :shock: Sure they haven't quoted you for PAR?

American white oak is good for outdoor use, same properties as European oak as far as I know. Don't know about the others.

John

 

[ByronBlack]

johnboy - the quote was for rough sawn, they wanted an extra £30 to plane it. Seems way to steep to me ;(

 

[Johnboy]

Byron, I have been meaning to visit Enfield Timber (the Southend branch is just down the road) for some time. At those prices I don't think I will bother. Have you tried E O Burton http://www.eoburton.com/stocklist.html. Not too far from you and only charged £15 for delivery last time I used them. Don't know how their prices compare with SL Hardwoods though.

John

 

[ByronBlack]

johnboy, i've been to EO Burton quite a few times, really nice guy's, prices are ok, not the cheapest though, but reasonable. However, they only do hardwoods, so no cedar

I think i'll have to do some phoning around tomorrow out of the thomson directory and see what I can dig up. It's a shame builders timber isn't more stable, it's only 75p for a meter of 6x1

 

[jasonB]

Byron, of the timbers SLH list Idigbo and oak would be the most suitable for outside use, they also do iroko which is a naturally oily wood and is ideal for external use but the price has gone up in the last few years due to logging restrictions etc.

The above are all likely to be kiln dried, so why pay for kilning when air dried or green timber would be a lot less, I can buy green oak form £16 cu ft. Have a search for local saw mills for a source of oak, chestnut or larch. I use these two.

http://www.scottimber.co.uk/

http://www.treespanner.co.uk/

and here is a list of other in the south east

http://www.woodnet.org.uk/woodlots/adve ... Timber.htm

Jason

 

[dedee]

Bryon,
have you tried Morgan Timber in Rochester http://www.morgantimber.co.uk/
Would not be too far from you. I bought some of the cedar for my mini greenhouse there. They were very helpful but I have no idea what I paid for it. If I can find the receipt I'll let you know.

Andy

 

[les chicken]

Byron
I have made planters out of tanalised wood, check your local fencing supplier. Motoway board as is known in the trade is 4x1 tanalised might be suitable for you.

Les

 

[engineer one]

byron. are you sure about this :?

swmbo has me going round garden centres regularly and there seem to be many planters available there at silly money. i know they are all standard, but i wonder whether this is really going to be worth your while, unless you are going to produce something really unusual so you can price it high enough to make sensible money for the time and effort of sitting around wherever you intend to sell it. :twisted:
i know this is a downer, but i am just asking the question which is have you thought this through?

why not make some in re-cycled wood, say old pallet wood, see what the sales are then try to upgrade yourself. seems to me you have to test the market and then re-invent your product. anyway being evil do you want these things to last for ever????? :lol: :lol: :lol:

look for some exotic pallets, then go from there.

good luck
paul :wink:

 

[Anonymous]

Made a garden bench out of Sepele 18 mths ago. Been outside all this time, still OK. Still not treated it yet, keep forgetting.

My supplier here in Lowestoft has a large qty of offcuts at stupid prices ie 2" thick, 8" x 30" @ £2.00 , 2" x 1" in 5 ft lengths @ £2.00 .Sizes are in imperial as he is old fashioned and does`nt use metric.
He has also got a qty of American Oak strips in 30" lengths in bundles of 10 @£2.00 a bundle. All his timber is kiln dried as it is all Factory Offcuts.

Koolwabbit

 

[ByronBlack]

I want to thank everyone for their idea's and links etc. But as Paul's post eludes to, I have come to the same conclusion and decided it's not worth it with regards to time and profit.

The idea was inspired by SWMBO, as she has a green house and grows copious amounts of stuff.

Instead what I might do, is make some nice small exotic wood boxes for cacti as we have tons of them, this I think would be easier and with more potential for profit, the other benefit being I can sell them online to almost anywhere without worrying about the plants dying.

So, thanks again eveyone! At the very least, I now have some more links to potential suppliers