Woods For Strip Decking

I plan to build a Shearwater 17 Hybrid this winter, and have decided to mill my own strips. I found a good local source for Western Red Cedar, but I'm having trouble finding White Cedar. I know I can order it, but I'd rather hand-pick the lumber. Are there other light-colored, lightweight woods appropriate for stripping? Pine? Poplar?


8 replies:

« Previous Post       List of Posts       Next Post »

RE: Woods For Strip Decking

The hard part of strip plank building is finding good wood.  I live in Michigan and you would think that finding good cedar would be easy.

I have found that CLC is by far the best source.  I just got some cedar last week from CLC and it is the best wood that I have layed hands on ever.

When you ask for dark wood, you get dark.  Ask for light and you get light. Never a need to hand pick.  The ceader here in Michigan is like pallet wood next to CLC wood.

Even with shipping the prices are great.

Lou

RE: Woods For Strip Decking

I used basswood for very light colored highlights on my wood duck 12 deck.  It is light and easy to work with.

 

 

RE: Woods For Strip Decking

Dogan, I just looked at the photos of your WD12. Very nice, simple decking!

RE: Woods For Strip Decking

Lou

L.L. Johnson in Charolotte is a very nice lumber yard.  They carry many varieties of wood.  Western Red Cedar up to about 20', clear.  Their white cedar is also not that good for boat building.  They have an excellent web site.

RE: Woods For Strip Decking

Look into using Paulonia. It is nearly as light as Balsa while being reportedly as strong as Cedar. I bought two slabs on eBay for $60 that will cut into enough strips for a deck. -Wes

RE: Woods For Strip Decking

BTW, you will love your Shearwater once you get learn how to use the low intial stability to your advantage. -Wes

RE: Woods For Strip Decking

Gene T,      I have been to LL Johnson.  They do have good clear Western Red Cedar.  But it is all the same color.   I have found that many stores say that they have W.R.C but none of it looks like the multi colored cedar that you get from CLC.  I think that a lot of cedar is called W.R.C. but is realy something else.

Jim 777 & Dogan,   I used Basswood on my Guillemot and it worked great. It is heavyer than cedar and will not bend very easy,  The light colored cedar that I just got from CLC is even a little lighter than the Basswood. You can see the Basswood on my Guillemot on my blog.  www.louskayakworks2.blogspot.com

Wes,    I have looked at Paulonia and I am eager to try some.

Lou

RE: Woods For Strip Decking

I checked out some basswood this morning. I Think it would be very good for a few accents, such as on Dogan's WD, but I want to do almost half my deck with light-colored wood, and the grain of the basswood looks kind of "blah". So I went to Liberty Cedar in Rhode Island, and when I asked for White Cedar, they were out of it, and priced it at a whopping $9/BF anyway. They did  show me some Yellow Cedar . It was nearly white in color, so I bought a board, and ripped some nice strips. Way less than $9/BF.

I guess I like to Learn By Doing. For example, I learned that boards with vertical grain do NOT have straight grain when strips are ripped from the plank, plain-sawn boards DO.

« Previous Post     List of Posts     Next Post »


Please login or register to post a reply.