I’m getting ready to build a number of barn doors. The general construction of each door will be a cross-buck frame with T&G 1×6 beadboard slats screwed to the back.
Normally, I would pick cedar for the frame, but a friend is trying to convince me to use poplar (lower cost).
So, assuming whatever material I use, (the frame (and slats) will be fully primed and painted), I’m open to hearing the pros (and cons) of different materials for the frames
Art
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Replies
Art
Here in Ohio, poplar was used for house siding, exterior trims, barn floors, purlins, maybe even barn siding. That was in the 1800's.
I don't consider new growth poplar to be as suitable. Even primed all 6 sides.
I've made several wood screen doors using Cypress. They are exposed to all weather, all seasons. Have had good luck with stain/paint retention.
Serious detailing on the bottoms and tops of barn doors, as even hundreds of yrs ago, these were the points of failure.
thanks for the confirmation
Yup - sometimes it pays to listen to your gut and not your friends.
I wholeheartedly agree with the detailing of the end grain and joints
Art
Yeah, cypress, if you can find it, is remarkably durable against weather. It's main negative is that it's quite soft (even when decades old).
Poor choice
Poplar is NOT suitable for exterior use!!!
Since it's painted you could also use pressure treated lumber or redwood if it's dried well. When an exterior project comes up where I need wood that's dimensionally stable and dry enough that shrinkage isn't a problem I'll search out the small lumberyards or small lumber mills with covered storage that have slow moving inventory. I'll pick the brain of the yard guys as to which boards have been sitting a long time - usually the oddball sizes or lengths.
I wouldn't normally think of pressure treated doug fir as anything I'd build a window frame with since we normally see stuff that's still dripping with moisture, but when a 4x6x20 with very few knots has been sitting for over a year and it's still straight - that wood is as dry as it's going to get, it's proven to be stable with moisture swings since it went from green to dry and remained straight, and it's a fraction the cost of other wood that would be as suitable.
Some exterior paint grade jobs I'll just have to buy red cedar since it's always available, straight, and is easy to work with, but I don't care for how soft it is. Many times doug fir is decay resistant enough to work in our climate (rocky mountains and west to nevada) if it can be found with a low enough moisture content. Until recently I was never too excited about redwood, but there are plenty of old time windows and trim that have held up over the years so it's growing on me.
A few years ago I ran into a guy with a portable lumber mill who was given a number of white oak trees and had a lot of rough sawn 8/4 white oak that's been sitting for a year. He wanted to sell it for less than $2/bdft, which made it economical for a number of interior or exterior projects, but I never did take him up on his offer since good doug fir is so plentiful.
Redwood
Don't assume that old redwood doors and windows that have held up over the years mean anything about today's redwood. There is virtually no old growth redwood being harvested any more. Tree farm redwood is either junk or very expensive, by which I mean equal or greater than many hardwoods.
Have you considered simply buying a barn?
Got the barn!
I built the barn about 15 years ago (36' x 52' 2 story dutch gambrel with the entire second story dedicated to my wood shop - promising your wife you'll build her a kitchen if only you had a workshop works every time!).
After spending the majority of my time building the barn, I quickly threw the doors together - and now its time to finally do them right
Art
Yeah, but an old barn can be a great source of wood.
Since the doors will painted, I would pick the wood with straightness and dimensional stability as the first criteria, and rot-resistance as secondary.
If good quality poplar is most readily available in your area, I'd say use it and pay particular attention to detailing the joints to shed water and to minimize exposed endgrain on horizontal surfaces.
Prime everything and finish with two coats of high-quality acrylic latex--this is the combination that protects wood best according to extensive testing done at the FDA's testing facility in ND.