This goes back a while…. Jan. 06
acornw wrote to loucarabasi about certain species he would and would not use for exterior doors. Poplar is terrible, Alder not much better. I was curiuos if anyone could elaborate on this? Also, why Maple is not very desirable, longevity-wise? What happens to Maple?
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Poplar, maple, alder are all woods that do not weather well. Any exterior door should have a protective finish but woods that are exceptionally vulnerable to moisture (and it's antithesis the burning sun) are much harder to protect successfully. Items made of these woods will have a shorter life span than those that are made of woods like cypress, mahogany, white oak, ipe or other woods that have better weather resistance traits.
There are a few reasons. One is the characteristics of the particular wood. The other I think has a lot to with mositure in the wood which allows more moisture to be in a harder heavier wood. I think Douglas Fir, Sugar Pine, Honduras Mahogany make some of the best doors.
For example: the percentage moisture content is the weight of the water divided by the oven dry weight then that answer times 100. If a board has an over dry weight which is twice what another wood weighs without any moisture then at the same percentage moisture content the heavier wood will contain twice as much water and have the same percentage moisture content.
If a board has a weight of ten pounds and after drying and getting an oven dry weight of 7 pounds it will have had a moisture content of 42.85% when it was wet. If a board has a weight of 20 pounds and an oven dry weight of 14 pounds it will had a moisture content of 42.85%. If the heavier wood has the same volume as the lighter one it would have a density which is double that of the lighter one. But would also have double the water amount also in the same amount of volume.
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