Building another 4 x 4 outdoor dining table

[Andrew Hughes]

I know of a wood that’s probably more rot resistant then ipe. Apitong. It may not be a beautiful but just as difficult to machine and extremely durable and might be less expensive.
I second the vote for domestic wood. Everything is in play if it’s painted even Douglas fir.
Good Luck

[Brian Runau]

what do you think of this? Teak like? thanks brian

https://www.samsclub.com/p/6-pc-dini...plp_product_35

[Tom Bender]

You could build a nice table and give it a top of Trex or similar. Not high style but you can still have fun with joinery and it will outlive you.

[Brian Runau]

As far as I know, yes, it is still very rot resistant, at least the stuff I used to build my deck with about 9 years ago is. That's the good news. The bad news is Ipe' is a PITA to keep looking good (and probably goes for any wood used for a horizontal application like a deck, picnic table, etc). I have used 3 different oil products, from Ipe' Oil, to Penofin, to Armstrong and Clark. All have gotten black mold on/in them and the wood after a single NE winter. When that happens it's a nightmare to completely remove it. I was foolish enough to do that 3 times. I even talked with the folks at A&C who assured me their product was different. Wrong. If it's got organic oil in it, it's going to happen.

I finally found "One Time", an acrylic finish with no organic oil. The answer to my prayers. The test patch I started with (I finally learned not to do the whole deck w/o proof.) is now 3 years old and has no mold on it. It's faded a little, but that's fine. I'll be able to renew it when I want w/o the nightmare cleanly process. I've been power washing my deck for the last two years to rid it of the last of the old finish and stains. The gray isn't all that unattractive, truthfully, and would be fine for a beach house, but I'm going to give it one more shot to look great, with One Time.

John

Thanks for the suggestion. Brian

[Michael Burnside]

I guess I just see my time and durability of material as value. Given your parameters of a table constantly exposed to the elements, I'd go a different route. For the top I'd use Polywood since Teak is outrageous or I'd just buy a 40x78 Polywood table for 800 bucks since even if I pay myself 80 bucks an hour, I don't think I could completely finish a table in 10 hours. Anything else you do isn't going to last and will require constant maintenance given your environmental parameters.

I have several Polywood furniture pieces that sit out by my firepit, rain, shine, winter, spring, summer, fall, they look exactly as they did new 6 years ago.

Now, if something is under a patio/covered then I'd consider some other choices, but otherwise, not worth my time personally.

[John Kananis]

There's zero chance you can come anywhere near the price of pre-built teak furniture... it's taxed differently than raw lumber when exported. As far as quality, what John said. And a far a choice of material, it all turns grey. Yes, teak will last longer but the return on investment (if you're building yourself) is pretty poor.