Softwood Exterior Door

[Maverick81]

Evening wood heads.

Im making an exterior door/front door for my house. I will be painting it so using softwood.....but which one should I use? Redwood, Dougie Fir, Larch....other? What do you think please?

 

[Mar_mite]

My preference would be doug fir. It's nice to work with and will make the workshop smell lovely. Southern yellow pine is also a good option.

 

[MMUK]

Could I ask why softwood? Even painted you'll have an annual maintenence struggle on your hands. Surely in the long run you'd be much better off using hardwood? Another thing to consider is that softwood will move a lot more than hardwood. It will twist and warp with climate change. The movement in some decent hardwood will be negligible.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

When I've done exterior work, I've always soaked the pieces in Cuprinol 5* or similar AFTER the joints have been cut. I've just sold a house with a painted spruce gate that is 20yrs old and in perfect condition.

 

[Jacob]

Redwood is trad top of the pops for external joinery. Cheap, available, easy to work, takes paint well.

 

[James-1986]

I agree with jacob, I've seen plenty of sashes etc made from 'deal' that are over a century old and still in good condition.

The important thing to remember is that the durability depends heavily on the individual piece of wood, not the species as a whole which varies from one end of the scale to the other for most timbers. If the redwood is full of turps it will last for many years and will out perform many hardwoords like sapele or meranti. Quarter sawn will help with stability along with timber that is properly seasoned.

Decent redwood will be an amber colour, it will have patches of white crystallised turps on the surface and the very best stuff will be dripping as you cut into it.

 

[RogerS]

My preference would be doug fir. It's nice to work with and will make the workshop smell lovely. Southern yellow pine is also a good option.

As I said over on the other site in response to this question, I hate Douglas Fir. I bought some at auction to try. It stinks to high heaven and caught the back of my throat so badly that it was the only wood where I had to wear a mask. It doesnt take paint very well and worst of all it leaves a sticky gunge all over your cast-iron worktops.

Douglas Fir burns really well!