Best wood for painted outdoor swing?

[butzla]

Need advice on which wood to use for an outdoor porch swing that will be painted.  It will be under a covered porch so no direct rain.  Also,  I'm looking for a wood with some heft that takes the paint well. 

 

[Brice Burrell]

I'd look at white oak if you really want heft, my second choice would be Spanish ceder, it's less dense but paints nicely.

 

[Les]

Cypress.

 

[Overtime]

Douglas Fir, Hemlock, Southern Yellow Pine

 

[mwhafner]

I would go with white oak or post oak, but I think that design would play a large factor in my decision.

 

[butzla]

A lot of opinions here.  Brice & mwhafner,  Why white oak?  Never heard of "post" oak.  Spanish cedar and cypress are not hefty enough for my needs.  Doug fir too splintery.  I'm curious about the white oak.  I wouldn't think it wouldn't be a nice painted finish with that open grain, but I'm leaning that way.  Thanks guys.

 

[mwhafner]

White oak is more rot resistant than most other domestic hardwoods.  It won't paint as well as something with a finer grain, but it is typically not as red oak.

Post oak is a member of the white oak family, and is  pretty common here in the southeastern US.  It is extremely rot resistant, and takes its name from the ability to use it for fencing (at least that is what I have always been told). 

 

[Brice Burrell]

Jim, when you said wood with heft for an exterior project white oak was one of the few woods that came to mind. White oak paints fine with three coats (one primer, two paint), be sure to use a good alkaline primer and paint.

 

[butzla]

I'll give it a try, Brice.  Unless my wood guru at my local Woodery has any better ideas.  Sure is a helluva lot cheaper than teak or ipe.  I'll keep you toasted.

 

[bruegf]

My first thought would be get some teak and don't mess w/ paint

Fred

 

[AlexThePalex]

If you are going to paint it anyway, I wouldn't bother with any type of hardwood but go for pine. It's one of the cheapest woods and if you get a decent quality it'll last forever. One of the best types of pine we use here in our cold and wet country of The Netherlands is called American Pine, so I bet you'll guys got plenty of that lying around. American pine is, when it comes to pines, one of the most expensive pines around here. It's dense and it got a lot of fat in it, so it will repel water very good.

As a matter of fact, I got American pine on all the wood work of my house, it was built in 1935. Last summer I painted the exterior, and for some parts, under the roof, I was the first one to paint it again since 1935. So as you can figure, lots of that wood has been exposed for over at least 20 years.

And guess what?

NOTHING was rotten. Incredible. 

 

[butzla]

My first thought would be get some teak and don't mess w/ paint

Fred

Who can afford it?!  And also it's for a farmer's porch where everything else is painted white.  If I go the natural finish way, I think I'd use a cheaper alternative like miranti, a Malaysian wood of the mahogany family.  Very nice.
[attachthumb=1]

PS  Alex, I'd never use pine.

 

[AlexThePalex]

PS  Alex, I'd never use pine.

Yeah well, maybe I should have kept my mouth shut.

I realise the wood market is completely different here from the USA. We got no lumber industry of our own and everything is imported. Wood is very expensive over here. We basically got 4 types of wood for construction, 2 types of pine and two hard woods, Merbau and Meranti. Merbau and Meranti are very expensive, a single plank of 18x200x2400 mm can cost us 25 euros. A good Scandinavian or American Pine can cost about 12 and the worst wood we got, a pine which I think you refer to as Dealwood, cost about 7 euros for such a plank.

The same plank in oak would cost even double that of Merbau. Woods like Oak, Birch or Teak are almost exclusively reserved for the better furniture. Nobody in his right mind would use such wood for mere construction work over here (except perhaps some rich folks).

But I have to say we got a very wet climate here, and the (better quality) pine we use outside holds up very well, if properly painted.

On the other hand, considering the American situation, and your abundance of forests and lumber, you're probably right to spit om pine. After all oak is much better. I wish we had it over here at reasonable prices.

Edit: I just realised I should have kept my mouth even more and let the big boys talk. I was under the impression you were talking about a fence or something. I just realised a swing is also some kind of furniture on which you sit and swing back and forth. Tsk, tsk, my English sometimes gets me.

 

[Brice Burrell]

Alex, a lot of the pine sold in my area (and in Stoolman's area) at low cost is not very rot resistant, if fact it's a poor choice for outdoor use. While it's still a common practice to use pine for exterior trim. One of my regular clients is a painting contractor, I do some of the repair work they run into on exterior trim, I can tell I've replace (painted) pine trim that was only a few years old many times.

This pine is eastern white pine, it's all second growth and harvested on regular cycles. The trees are spaced for the fastest growth possible, this reduces the quality considerably. Plus the wood is kiln dried, while this makes the wood more stable and ready to use it also reduces it's resistance to rot.

There are a lot of different species of pine so I'm not sure what species your American pine is, it may be more rot resistant. The pine trim on your home could possibly be old growth making much better than anything we can get today.

I have to say I'd glad you posted, I enjoy reading your posts. It's nice to hear how things are done over seas. I encourage you to keep offering your perspective. 

 

[bruegf]

Who can afford it?!  And also it's for a farmer's porch where everything else is painted white.  If I go the natural finish way, I think I'd use a cheaper alternative like miranti, a Malaysian wood of the mahogany family.  Very nice.

It is amazing how expensive teak has become.  Last time I looked it was almost $20/bd ft.    I've got a few hundred board feet of Burmese teak that I bought a number of years ago that I've been trying to sell for a while since I never ended up using on a boat project for a boat I owned at the time.  I'd be willing to sell it at a very good price just to get it out of my basement.

Fred

 

[butzla]

Looking for some hefty weight.  Poplar's too light.

 

[jvsteenb]

Being from Holland ( Like Alex, I believe ) I have little experience with white oak, so I can't comment on that.

We have a small supply of red oak, and I wouldn't use it for outside purposes, our native oak species are far more rot-resistant.
Besides, painting it would be a waste, and cumbersome as well as it's so extremely open-pored.

I wouldn't use meranti - The quality ( and species marketed as meranti ) varies wildly,
and even the best quality obtainable here is not as durable or strong as I'd like for outdoor furniture use.

But have you considered black locust ? In Europe it's grown and harvested for some time now ( mainly in Hungary and Romania I believe ).
Special care is been taken to promote straight grain growth as it tends to grow a bit twisty by itself.
It lends itself very well for outdoor furniture: it's every bit as strong as oak, extremely rot-resistant (almoast on par with teak),
and can be painted well if care is taken to prepare the surface.
It's a dense wood, and contrary to oak can be easily combined with steel fasteners, as it's low in tannins.

Just my two (Euro-)cents

 

[butzla]

I've never even heard of Black Locust here in the states, let alone seen it.  If it were available, I'd take a look at it based on your praise.  My local woodery sells meranti in exterior deck form.  My experience is its a beautiful and durable wood (see my adirondack chair picture above) 

Good point about tannins.  Brice and others who recommended white oak:  Will this be a problem using steel fasteners?  I plan on using stainless steel anyway so I'm hoping I'm all set.

 

[mwhafner]

Stainless fasteners should be fine. 

 

[John Langevin]

As mentioned, Black Locust (Robinia pseudo-acacia) is excellent for outdoor construction. Growing up in North Carolina it was our wood of choice for fence posts and rails as well as the keels and rub rails on the dories my father and I built. It is hard, strong, extremely tough, exceedingly rot-resistant and takes paint well. I think it would be worth some effort to find some.

I returned home last year to the golf course where I lived. They were removing some fencing (unpainted) I had built in 1972 and I saw the fence posts had not rotted or deteriorated in the least. Excellent durability in my mind.