Adirondack chairs - your material of choice?

[lowell holmes]

What is KDAT pine and where do you get it?

I agree on using white oak.

[Todd Burch]

KDAT stands for Kiln Dried After Treatment. Treatment being pressure treating. You can get it in Houston, but not sure where.

Todd

[lowell holmes]

KDAT stands for Kiln Dried After Treatment. Treatment being pressure treating. You can get it in Houston, but not sure where.

Todd

Thanks, I appreciate it.

[Allan Speers]

KDAT stands for Kiln Dried After Treatment. Treatment being pressure treating. You can get it in Houston, but not sure where.

Todd

Personally, I wouldn't want to sit, or rest my arms on, pressure treated lumber.

Heck, I don't even want to cut it.

Something to consider.

[Todd Burch]

When I cut it, I used a mask.

Once it's painted, it might as well be plastic instead of pressure treated wood. Doesn't matter. (to me)

[Curt Harms]

What about Black Locust?

It's a bit hard to source, and it's expensive, but it's nice looking, (looks pretty much like white oak, but with a honey-golden glow) hard, and about as weatherproof as lumber gets.

I've never tried it, myself, but have always wanted to.

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Edit: Here's a pic of some nice chairs, made with the stuff:

http://ablacklocustconnection.com/furndeck.htm

Same with me. The problems I've heard about black locust is it's hard to find larger boards and it's tough to dry straight. I don't know if there's a shortage of suitable trees or a lack of demand.

[Allan Speers]

Funny -

No one mentioned Redwood.

Isn't that a somewhat common & excellent choice?

[Bill Huber]

Funny -

No one mentioned Redwood.

Isn't that a somewhat common & excellent choice?

Look at post #4...

[Allan Speers]

Look at post #4...

Ah, missed it.

So how do you like the redwood, vs the Cypress, after a few years?

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Also - what plan is that? I really like the look of a curved back, vs the Norm-type chairs. Plus, those footrests are deadly. Gotta' have some!

[Bill Huber]

There is not a lot of difference, they both have aged to a nice gray color and are still in very good shape.

[Jim Dwight]

I made two about 10 years ago out of pressure treated SYP. The paint needs redone but they are solid. If you are going to paint, I don't see why you'd use anything else. I didn't take any special precautions - just like I haven't when building decks out of it.

[Robert Wachtell]

I've been making a bunch of these for family members. I've been using cypress as that was the wood recommended in the plans I'm using. Some of the parts on a chair made last fall are splitting! On one other part, the cypress seems to be separating at the growth layer. My wood was kiln dried and I'm somewhat puzzled over what I'm seeing.

What wood do you use for your outside projects? And what does it cost - roughly - per board foot in your area? Thanks!

I'm not certain if anyone mentioned this in this thread yet, but its important to consider in all outdoor wood applications.

Regarding the cracking in your lumber. Flat grain exposed to the weather will face check significantly more then quarter sawn grain exposed to the weather. In fact quarter sawn red cedar will not face check at all. On the other hand flat grain will face check badly, the flatter it is the more it will face check. The face checking will lead to full board cracks with the aid of just a little time, water and warmth. No doubts about it! 24X7X365 and 366 on on leap years. You can bet all your money on this double or nothing.

In a warm moist environment that also gets dry at times, pre-drilling will not prevent flat grained outdoor lumber from checking which will sometimes lead to full length cracks.

While some woods resist face checking more then others I would recommend using quarter sawn lumber for your projects that will be exposed to the weather, no matter what type of lumber you use.

The single most valuable feature of quarter sawn is its stability to outdoor weather. The benefits of it in an outdoor application are 10 times that of using it over flat grain in a indoor application.

I rarely hear anyone make this distinction but you can take this one to the bank and probably get money for it if you wish.

ADK chairs are the best. Make mine out of recycled old Red Cedar paneling, unfortunately not all pieces are quarter sawn.

cheers Rob

[Tim Krzywicki]

Cedar is my first choice, wears nice and smells good. A few years ago i purchased the generic green plastic chairs from a chain store. The color started to wear in a matter of months.

[Dennis Aspö]

Started building two of these chairs now, using construction lumber for the frame. For the seat I am using the same pressure treated wood, I will treat the chair with some kind of oil finish I believe. It will be interesting to see how the construction lumber will hold up.

I could have made the frame from pressure treated lumber as well but I don't really like handling it and the frame requires a lot of ripping and cutting, the boards though are simpler and can mostly be cut outside.