Wood Suggestions for Exterior Trim

[Vaughn McMillan]

A buddy of mine is replacing a rotted piece of trim on his garage door. From what he told me, it's standard 1x8 finished lumber ripped down to 7" wide. (He called me asking if my table saw operational yet...he was considering using his jigsaw to rip it to size, but then had better thoughts, lol.) Anyway, he's considering buying a piece of F4S 1x8 oak from Lowe's, because that's what the "wood guy" at Lowe's said he'd use. I told him the average "wood guy" at Lowe's knows as much about wood as their average "plumbing guy" knows about plumbing.

I suggested he also look at cedar or redwood, considering Lowe's wanted $40 for a single board of oak. Do any of you guys have any other suggestions?

 

[Jim DeLaney]

Cedar or Cypress if readily available, but I guess Redwood is likely more available there. I'd guess, though, that any/all if the three have to be 'imported' om Albuquerque.

 

[Ryan Mooney]

If it's white oak that's pretty good as well. At least as good as Western red cedar, perhaps a bit better depending on variety and condition. If it's red oak that's pretty useless for outdoors (cut a small section off of the end and if it's porous, skip it). Cyprus, old grown is sort of the holy Grail from a rot resistance plus workability standpoint, unfortunately a lot of the stuff available now isn't that great. Eastern cedar is ok but not great. Fine grain pine is actually not bad either, but good luck finding that. Redwood is pretty good, the sap wood can have some problems though so pick carefully. Both redwood and cedar can be a smidge of a pain to paint, do prime carefully. Oak and (especially) Cyprus are easier.

 

[Leo Voisine]

I replaced all the garage trim on my garage doors with PVC this past summer. Not gonna rot. I used the Coremark (i think thats the name) fasteners, they are awesome.

I had primed on all 4 sides and cut ends before. It was 1x pine from HD and it rotted in less than 10 years.

HD depot Oak is just as likely to be Red oak - which will rot faster than Pine.

 

[Vaughn McMillan]

Thanks guys. I've passed this info on to my buddy. I guess a lot of it will depend on what he can find at either Lowe's or Home Depot. I should know what he decided on by Tuesday when he comes over for band rehearsal.