wood for grape arbor

[murphy4trees]

A customer of mine was thinking of buying a bunch of cedar to put wood up on the old concrete posts of his very old grape arbor... he asked if I could mill him some wood.. we have eastern hardwoods and pine, fir, spruce, hemlock etc here.. any suggestions about what kind of wood, what dimensions, how it should be milled etc.... there is a guy that runs a portable sawmill, or my log loader has offered to pick a load of milled wood up from the a sawmill he deals with, on his way back from dropping off logs.. I think the customer thought he was going to have to pay $3,000 for the cedar.. Any suggestions.. thanks

 

[Talltom]

Eastern Red Cedar is very rot resistant but hard to find in large dimensions. Other softwood species you mentioned aren't good choices. White Oak is rot resistant and should be readily available in the Phila area. He'll still want to treat the wood with some type of finish to help it shed water. If recoated every few years, the oak would last decades, but he may only get one chance to put a finish on the wood. That's the problem with arbors - the vines get in the way. Design also affects longevity. Use a standoff base for the posts and caulk or flash areas where horizontal members meet. Wood that stays wet will rot much more quickly.

Most arbors use oversized timbers just because it looks better. 4x4 posts might be strong enough but will look too skinny. 5x5 or greater (actual dimension) would look better and 3x horizontal members would be more in scale than 2x. Think big. If the timbers are being custom cut, you're not limited to even dimensions or sizes that are commercially available. They don't even need to be the same dimensions. I'm drying oak timbers for an arbor I'll build his summer and wanted the top pieces to be 3x10. I couldn't quite get that and ended up with 2 timbers at 9", 2 at 9.5" and one at 10." No problem - I think it will look even better.

 

[brookpederson]

I would go with a softwood first, fir or eastern red cedar. Simply because they are easier to move, dry, work and nail or screw. Don't get me wrong I love the hard woods , but the longer I try to move oak around, dry it and then have try to put a nail though it w/out pre drilling. Yuck. Good luck

 

[MHouse1028]

black locust is very rot resistant and a nice yellow color

 

[Fundyheather]

If the conc base is old already, for me it 'wood' look better built of small full round logs than milled wood -- if your customer likes rustic. I'm in an eastern cedar area here in maritime Canada, so for something like that I would consider to buy larger cedar fence posts for 2-5 dollars each as mill rejects. When you get to the mill you can bargain for a few whole large logs with big bows in them they won't put through the mill either. Slice them in half to make cruck arches for the entry. I connect and brace with custom iron brackets, but that's just me. Pick through to find the old stuff that peels easily. If they have to have milled lumber choose hemlock. The heavy weather you are in for will smash down your work before it gets much chance to rot, or the new people moving in will be against grapes and pull it all down anyway, IMO.
jim

 

[Old Blue]

brookpederson

Have you tried using a palm nailer for driving nails into your oak? I've had good luck driving stuff that just buckled under the hammer with a palm nailer.

Sorry for the threadjack murphy.

Old Blue
Taxed to the max, for some other SOBs solar cells in...
Kali-bone-ya

 

[brookpederson]

I usually use an impact driver for the hard stuff. He might want to consider using some timber framing joinery and not use any nails or screws. It looks better and lasts longer, yet another reason to choose a soft wood, it's soft.