Any of you guys built a T14 out of pine vice cedar??.......

geneinmurphy · Tue Apr 11, 2006 3:47 pm

My neighbor loves my T14 and wants to build one. However, cedar is very expensive in my area (and 12" wide cedar boards are hard to find) and pine is about half the price. Other than weighing more and not being as weather resistant, is there any reason NOT to use pine??? When I visited Amish country in Ohio several months ago an Amish man there told me lots of the Amish built theirs from pine or poplar. Seems like if you you got a good primer and paint it well, it should last a while.........

Guest · Tue Apr 11, 2006 4:22 pm

Gene, A friend of mine constructs all his t14s out of pine - he actually uses laminated pine (about 1/2 the price) . Some of them have been up for 5+ years. He applies a fresh coat of paint every year.

Guest · Tue Apr 11, 2006 5:27 pm

geneinmurphy wrote: However, cedar is very expensive in my area (and 12" wide cedar boards are hard to find) and pine is about half the price. Other than weighing more and not being as weather resistant, is there any reason NOT to use pine???

geneinmurphy,

Keep in mind that you don't need 12" cedar boards to build a T-14. You can use multiple narrower boards. One guy on this forum (Emil, if I recall correctly) built a T-14 using cheap cedar fence boards.

IIRC, the key was he cut the sides of the boards at a 45 deg angle so each board overlapped leaving no gap.

Guest · Tue Apr 11, 2006 7:19 pm

This is my 4th season with a T-14 built from pine. Looks as good as the day i built it. Paint it properly and it will last a long time.

Have a Great Day- Jim

geneinmurphy · Tue Apr 11, 2006 7:33 pm

Stan...I'm not familiar with laminated pine. Where can you buy it and how is it different from regular pine????

Guest · Thu Apr 13, 2006 3:51 pm

Gene, Sorry for the confussion. I am refering scrap pieces of pine laminated togather to create a board. This product is considerably cheaper than a solid pine (ie 1x12")

Flylow · Fri Apr 14, 2006 1:26 am

Gene I built One out of pine and one out of poplar, the poplar is very heavy. I use one coat of oil based primer and two coats of oil based paint.
From now on I will use pine it is far cheaper.

Guest · Fri Apr 14, 2006 2:30 pm

geneinmurphy,

Don't use a 12" wide board. Not only are they harder to find and more expensive, they tend to cup too easy. Use narrower boards, such as 1x4s, and edge-glue them together to get the width you need.

I never build any of my furniture projects with wide boards for the same reason. Use a water resistant glue, such as Titebond II, or a waterproof glue such as one of the polyurethane glues.

As you said, a good primer and good grade exterior paint and you should be good for years.

Morris