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RPetry

What is it?

Question

Started a mahogany job today. The home is two years old and built by a very good local custom builder. Attached is a picture of the garage doors.

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Anyone have any idea what species of wood this might be? Owner has no idea.

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Boy that's pretty. Have you got one of the whole door? You may have two species there. Parts of it (horizontal) look similar to white hickory or to ash, both of which grow in that area. Hard to say.

Beth

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Beth,

Yes, this is one of two full doors.

dscfwebdoor.jpg

Ken,

Never worked on cypress. Had a customer last year with a large solid stained cypress deck. Could not get to it for nearly a month so he tore it down and rebuilt with composite! What a heartbreak. Looked at a small cypress deck years ago but it was dirty with residual stain.

I made a wild *ss guess of Siberian Larch when talking with the customer, but have no idea where that idea came from. Too many mixed up, degraded neurons floating around in this old skull.

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Rick, after looking at the pictures and doing a lot research I finally figured out what it is.....................Yup, its wood!:)

You woodies need any more help, be free to call on me at any time

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I'm going with Douglas Fir. Bold grain pattern and darker heartwood..something fast grower.

Just today I was corrected by the homeowner after me saying no less than 5 times within the hour how cedar finishes and behaves, yada yada yada...."Neil, this is cypress siding".

Love when that happens!:o

/neil

post-1223-137772189467_thumb.jpg

post-1223-137772189474_thumb.jpg

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...and now I've noticed the smaller mullion in the center of the bottom panel...

What was he thinking???

Doug fir, huh?

I think a board foot of it should be sufficient for testing purposes.

Where we gonna cut it out?

r

OK, I see it now... a different tone of wood was pieced in for 1 side

of the mullion...

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I don't know Kevin.

In a past life I did a lot of carpentry, but very little, anymore.

People feel you must be specialized, in my experience.

They ask me that, directly.

I frequently reply, "residential service," or "customer satisfaction."

...Oh boy! Radio news flash has just said FEMA has brought in grief counselors for the unfortunate folks here in the land of big smoke.

At least there are a large number ofhomes on the market for these people to take over!

...A very real credit to enforcement people that there have so far been so few fatalities involved in this maelstrom...

r

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Douglas Fir certainly sounds reasonable. Being on the East coast, don't see it in this area, or at least have not noticed it.

Looked at a cedar job last month and the customer had a very large redwood in the front yard! Seems that someone imported Chinese or Dawn redwoods about 40 years ago and planted quite a few in the Princeton, NJ area.

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Check it out, I open the Oct. issue of Handy Magazine and on page 28 is a french door patio setup that shows the exact same wide open grain that some us think to be Doug Fir as well as the tighter grained boards and it seems to be exact same color. Guessing seems not required what wood as they say in article it is Pella's mahogany Architect Series. I am only used to seeing mahogany being much darker stained than these garage doors or these french doors. The below links do not at all show the color or grain similarity but if ya got the magazine you'll see it as same. Either Pella is cheating or that HO is right. Maybe I scan pic for ya Rick if interested.

Pella Windows and Doors - Pella Products

Pella Windows and Doors - Architect Series Wood Options

ps- wait a second.. Rick you said it was a mahogany job but HO didn't know what wood it was?.. you playin with us and knew all time..:) ,still seems like two woods to me..

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Kevin,

No way the garage doors I posted are mahogany. Mahogany has a tight grain pattern, kind of like small rice kernels.

The mahogany job I started is a large porch at the rear of the home. Stripped off 1 yr. ATO, buffed, and waiting for the weather to clear to stain.

I installed two Pella Architect Series doors in our townhouse 5 years ago. Expensive, but worth it. These are pine to match our furniture. Hardest, most dense pine I've ever seen. If I recall, the pine is from Eastern Canada.

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I know I want to say same thing especially on the big grained trim boards.

All I can say is that is what the Handyman mag says of their Pella pics. The second link I presented shows their doug fir color and grain sample and it seems a real close match to me. Handy probably muffed up. Your doors you got pictured are what? The swirly looking wood to me looks like what is inlaid into a antique standup radio I keep in my bedroom. Did you say that is pine? Now my antique dresser seems to be mahogany like pictured here: Mahogany - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia but done in a deep old time mahogany flame color.

With all said there are different types of mahogany, pine, etc. right? Maybe they growing the stuff real cheap and fast like they do with the redwoods these days and you get what you pay for in way of heartwood or not.

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And the answer is ..... Spanish Cedar. So many have asked my customer that he called the builder, who called the garage door company.

Kind of interesting as the wood is not from Spain nor is it a cedar.

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Rick - you should have asked me - that's exactly the wood in my other post. It's straight grained fir - but not douglas fir. Douglas fir has a whole different look to it. It was the wood of porch decks prior to the invention of pressure treated.

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