We are getting ready to build a deck and someone recommended a wood called Meranti. Does anyone have personal experience with this wood? How does it compare to cedar, ipe, or other more common deck wood choices.
TIA Rick
No personal experience with meranti (which is a mahogany), but I found a couple of links.
Hi Rick,
"Meranti" is a kind of generic term for the Shorea genus--over 50 commercial species of this hardwood were known when I was starting high school [about
40 yrs ago]. There could be more varieties and sources now, though...You'd probably know it as some kind of "Lauan" or [Philippine/ Borneo] "Mahogany" / "Cedar", depending where you live. It's also called Seraya / Serai in some places where it's grown...Funniest name I've ever heard [or read] for it is "Pacific Maple"...!!!Nails, screws and glues well and can be easy to difficult to work, depending on the density and grain. My old textbooks say it's OK for outdoor use, being fairly resistant to decay and pests, but I'd really want the deep, dark-red, dense stuff for a deck. This is the hardest to work, but still easier than ipe, in my experience. My old books also say to avoid the "yellow" variety for outdoor use--"White" and "Red" types are OK...It's known for shrinkage when out in the weather, despite what retailers will tell you!
Must be OK, though, since a lot of pallet wood and plywood used all over the world are made from this stuff...Check 'meranti' or 'lauan' on Google
I've used tons of the wood, since it was just about the ONLY hardwood you could buy where I used to live. Very stable as a furniture wood, but we rarely used it outdoors...BIG question--Is it any cheaper than the others?
HTH
jack states:
Not bloody likely. It's Shorea spp., a luaun, or Phillipine mahogany and not much like any true mahogany (Swietenia spp.).
Darker (more resinous) Shorea groups are durable enough for decking, but standard light colored meranti is not.
Charlie Self "Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." Abraham Lincoln
Meranti is not suitable for outdoor. It crack and warp very easily. In South East Asia, it is mainly use for indoor furniture's. Meranti is deep to light brown easily distinguish from other tropical woods, the grain look like oak or Mahogany but not as hard. "Chengi" (incorrect spelling) are use for outdoor furniture's and coffin as it will withstand rotting just like Cedar.
It's several different species, all under one label. It's one of those timbers that gets lumped in as "mahogany", but only for really poor values of fake mahogany.
Ugly, splintery, turns an unattractive grey, any splinters you get in a finger turn septic, but it is tough and will last pretty well. My Dad used to use it for decking on his flatbed trucks for years.
On Thu, 04 Nov 2004 14:12:49 GMT, Rick Stein vaguely proposed a theory ......and in reply I say!:
remove ns from my header address to reply via email
I replaced the beams on a gazebo.......well...I rebuilt the gazebo. It was Meranti. Maybe 15 years old? There was a craze for using it here (Western Oz) for a while. It was badly rotted in the joints where moisture had got in. It had warped incredibly. I forced the rafters straight, then placed new purlins and roofed the thing.
This stuff was the lighter grade. There are heavy parts or ytypes to the wood that would be better, but you have to pick them, and they are getting rarer at least here. My guess they were old growth heartwood, because they were completely mixed in wth the lighter stuff. That was best quality, and now they are grabbing at just about the cambium!
***************************************************** Have you noticed that people always run from what they _need_ toward what they want?????On Fri, 05 Nov 2004 00:20:29 +0000, Andy Dingley vaguely proposed a theory ......and in reply I say!:
remove ns from my header address to reply via email
This shows how many "merantis" there are. The stuff I knew was two grades; a quite attractive dark, dense wood, and stuff that was almost balsa. The balsa stuff was not ugly, but boring. It was not splintery at all, being more ...well like balsa..powder!
***************************************************** Have you noticed that people always run from what they _need_ toward what they want?????HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.