Wood type for garden bench?

Teak is also a good choice although it is getting hard to find these days owing to over logging in the past. I believe it has protected status now. Reclaimers may have stocks from old lab benches.

Richard

We've yet to find a wooden bench seat that looks good after a few years, whether treated or not, but maybe the treatments aren't much good these days. I guess certain tropical woods are better, but even these may need some maintenance to keep them looking good.

Last year we went for a plastic "wooden" bench, and we are very pleased with it. It's this one (although currently unavailable):

It is very sturdy and looks as good as new.

If you want it to last well untreated, then you need to use a species of wood classed as "durable".

Common candidates include English oak, Teak, and Western Red Cedar.

On Oak or Cedar you can oil or just leave them untreated - they will in time acquire a silver finish.

Wouldn't have expected oak to need treatment for bench laths. Wood only rots when the conditions are right for the fungus's etc. Too wet or too dry and rot doesn't happen. Bench laths are suspended in the open air so dry really well.

IMHO painting untreated wood is why it rots. The paint eventually microscopically fails, lets water in but then can't get back out fast enough.

Teak was the timber of choice for garden furniture but may well be hard to come by and/or expensive these days. We have a bench with teak laths, sister rescued some old teak bench tops... This has been outside for decades and is perfectly sound, just superfical silver surface weathering.

I was gonna say ?Don?t buy plastic? as the plastic stuff I?ve seen made from recycled plastics has always warped and looked terrible in a short space of time. The bench in the link above looks okay though...

Not sure that I would have one though. I kinda feel that garden furniture

Tim

Iroko is cheaper than Teak and very long lasting, Iroko does not require regular treatment with oil or varnish when used outdoors. It is very difficult to work with tools as it tends to splinter easily, and blunts tools very quickly.[

If you don't mind the odd splinter and can get it then opepe is virtually indestructible. My father made fences out of offcuts from the dyestuffs industry in the 1970's and they were still fine 50 years later. The only pieces that actually failed had been buried and even they still had some structural integrity. The downsides are that you have to treat it as a metalworking project. It is very brittle.

It is a rather bright orange to begin with but ages to a silver grey like most of the reddish hardwoods. Iroko is probably a more commonly available wood I'd point you at my favourite wood supplier website but they have improved it so that you just get thrown at random advertisers and there is no worthwhile content at all any more :(

Teak oil or boiled linseed oil.

Yes for heartwood of oak and wrc, I'd choose wrc but use slightly thicker section as it is a less dense wood. You could look at sweet chestnut but fixings need to be considered as it splits easily.

I recently built my log shed using wrc milled by a chap I know in Petersfield as 4 x 2 weren't readily available earlier in the crisis.

Iroko, or plastic if you can get it in the right dimensions and it's not Ikea*.

• A bendy wobbly thing.

I did a similar job and had this quote for some wood - cut to length:

I've given you prices for four different timbers, no problem to radius the corners for you .

Softwood ?21.00 Idigbo ?47.00 Sapele ?55.00 Iroko ?64.00

I opted for the softwood and a can of Sadolin - It will see me out!

Wierdly enough Lleylandii wood is long lasting outdoors, you might find it quite difficult to source though!

A lot of perfectly good wooden decking is being removed from Worthing pier so that the RSJ's and other bits ot metal can be repaired and painted.

There is a huge stack of new decking awaiting installation.

What they chopped out was left in a big heap and apart from a bit of surface degredation and discolouration, the core of each hardwood deck timber lokked like new where it had been cut through.

Hope it doesn't end up in landfill or on a log burner.

It's probably UV degradable.

I guess it depends on the look you are after and how much work you intend to do. One small seat I say said it was Mahogany, well it looked like it was too, but as at School I used this wood for projects it was incredibly hard and tended to have little bits split off. Brian

I seem to recall the so called Mahogany one said it had the ends impregnated with something and the rest needed to be oiled with some stuff. These hard woods seem to be the thing, but they ain't cheap. Brian

However Mahogany although a 'hardwood' in the sense of being deciduous isn't particularly hard I don't think. It's mainly used because it is very beautiful/decorative.

snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com was thinking very hard :

Last time I looked at recycled imitation plastic wood, I found it surprisingly expensive for what it was and only available as ready made furniture. Has that situation changed at all, is there a cheap source of just material?

Used some when volunteering with the National Trust for a board walk. It came from Liverpool area is only info I had. It was far more expensive than real wood, and much heavier. Had to allow for expansion when fixing so clearance holes for all fixing screws. After approx 10 years the material itself is absolutely fine with the rough finish on the top still present and not slippery. Only maintenance has been due to movement of the supporting framework in a very wet and often flooded area. I think the initial investment has more than paid off in reduced maintenance costs especially in keeping a non-slip surface.

Thanks all for your helpful responses. I'm starting to think it might actua lly be more expensive to repair the bench with decent timber (and use the s teel ends) than to buy a new hardwood one. Such a shame as it'd be a reward ing and easy little project and gain useful credit with SWMBO.