Poly Wood,

[Ben Abate]

Hello all,

I'm thinking of a few out door projects that I'd like to use Poly Wood or what ever it is called. I was wondering if anyone has used this product and if so where did you acquire it? I've checked the net and I'm having a hard time finding a distributor of this stuff. I see out door furniture made of all the time but can't get someone to tell me where they buy it.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks
Ben

[Steven Hsieh]

http://www.polywoodinc.com/dealer-locator/index.php

[John Morrison60]

Ben

I have made two decks, one stairwell, with trim, railings and steps out of
plastic lumber. I used Bedford Technologies http://plasticboards.com/
lumber,

They are great to deal with, and their product is very similar to normal dimensional lumber.
A couple of caveats with this material:
1. It is heavy and not very structural. Bedford has a structural version that has glass in it.
2. it machines nicely, but you can not fully machine it like rough lumber. There is surface tension
in the plastic that will cause it to warp towards a rip cut side. For instance, if you want to
have a 3" wide board, you would rip 1/4 from opposite sides rather than 1/2 from one side.

3. I never found a glue that would stick to it.
4. It cleans up very well, and does not need maintenance.

I am a big enthusiast due to its low maint and good looks.
I have been told that the cost of it is mainly due to the Chinese filling up empty containers with
shredded plastic material for shipment back to China. The competition for the raw material
caused the price of the plastic lumber to go up almost 50%, from my first deck to my second project.

I think it would make terrific furniture although I haven't done it yet.
Good Luck
John

[Ben Abate]

Steve,

I found that same site but from what I have read they are a furniture distributor and not a whole saler of the raw material (dimenional lumber). But thank you for your info. I'm going to call them today and hopefully I'm incorrect and they do distribute lumber.

John,
Cool site, thank you for the info. That's the most I've seen about Poly wood/Plastic lumber. It seems like there is so much on the net about the end product (furniture and tables) but not on the raw material. It seems like the folks that sell it are very quiet about selling. I've requested information from them. Did you have to buy direct from them, it seemed to elude to that when reading the web site info. Hopefully I can find that they have a distributor in the Pittsburgh PA area.

What got me going on this is I've been wanting to replace the exterior shutters on our house. My wife likes the board and batten style. I was pricing them at the borg and to have them custom sized because of our window sizes they were about $100.00 per set. Not unreasonable but from what I see from the samples they are extruded thin pressings and not actual lumber. I'm helping a friend rebuild his mothers deck and the material he purchased is a 100% PVC product that is very nice. It just doesn't come in Black which workes nicely with the white brick on our home. Black awnings also. To be honest I can't remember the product name that he is using. The decking boards are 5.5 inches wide and 20 feet long by 5/4 inches.....they are $70.00 per board.

If this workes out I believe I'll build a few pieces of outdoor furniture also. Seeing the prices of the material I can see why the furniture you find built from it is so expensive.

Fellows thank you very much for the info. That's such a nice benefit of belonging to this site, someone always has info for you no matter what the field.

thanks
Bne

[Rob Sack]

I have used Trex extensively and another product that is no longer available. The Trex mills pretty much like wood lumber. It cuts easily and I have been able to use it with my jointer and planer will good results.