Hello, I am a cabinet maker and engineer from Portland Oregon. We are working on an addition project with a new kitchen / eating area/ garage down stairs and bed/bath up stairs on a ’30 cottage. There has been some suggestions about using cedar in the pantry and I have no experience with this. I noticed an old post about cedar pantry and have a few questions:
Does this kill or prevent infestation of food bugs?
Would sheet goods with veneer be as (or nearly as) effective as plank siding?
Would/should the door have some weather striping (modified exterior style) to keep the air space tight and hopefully bugs out
Anyone done this and have problems with food?
Replies
This question came up last year. One person replied that it gives an awful taste to food, that's why no one does it.
All my life I've never seen bugs in food, though a mouse once ate some of my chocolate chip cookies left out in the living room. Are you trying too hard to engineer a solution to a non-problem?
I have had three cedar pantries we have delt with, and one was an old one that we were hired to pull out becasue owner told us she couldnt keep anything in there but canned food because of the taste.However the pantry was on an old house and even had cedar sawdust insualtion and it smelled "old" to us
another we at first thought was white painted fir. We had to remove it for a kitchen remodel. we did not know it was cedar until we cut into it. Msybe the layers of paint that wer used to make it easy to clean and lighten it up blocked the cedar fumes because this lady had bread, potatoes and other non canned stuff in it as well
so I think the other poster might be correct and maybe the best place for pourus cedar is clothes closets
so are you a structura engineer in Oregon ?
Thanks Hammertime, I'll re think the cedar pantry idea, maybe a cedar door into the space or something.
I'm not a structural engineer, a building engineer; and working on my nuclear engineering degree. I know much more about the MEP part of buildings than structural issues. I am developing a portfolio of casework for some friends and family now; that when finished I will use to become a casework business.