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New door... what wood?


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Hello, 

I have a friend who is willing to make me a new door for my boat as my current one is rotten as it was never sealed properly.... can anyone suggest what wood to use?  I wasn’t planning on replacing the frame at this current stage due to money / time restraints , would it cause a problem if the frame and door are different ages / types of wood? 
 

thanks for the help!

 

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You probably haven't got much choice in fact. Most 'wood' is some sort of softwood variety of pine. As Tracy says, Iroko is good and that is likely to be pretty much all that is available as hardwood, looks nice when varnished. If you are going to paint the doors I would use softwood and then slap a lot of Cuprinol onto them every day for a week or so on and then when properly dry paint them.

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As above, Iroko is probably the most cost-effective solution.  A good hardwood which will withstand the UK weather.

English (not American White) Oak would be another choice, but it's much more expensive and you can't use steel fixings.

Utile and Sapele are both widely available, fairly good from a weathering perspective, but slightly less durable than the above two.

 

Any of the above will last well if kept well maintained.

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Your helpful friend, if they haven't worked with Iroko before, ought to be aware that it'll be hard work to cut, and will need a preparatory wipe-down with acetone on the areas to be glued, thanks to the qualities of the wood which make it durable.

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Iroko, weathers well, pretty rot proof.

 

Never paint the top and bottom edges of doors, the wood needs to breath. It will rot quicker if it is all sealed up

If out in the weather do tops and bottoms with a microporous preservative, if protected from weather leave bare.

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When we put Resolute together some 20 years ago, we opted for wooden handrails in opepe, slide runners similarly, whilst doors and slide tops were in 18 mm birch ply. We were, and still are , very traditionally minded. All of these were resinised, coated with a couple of coats of West System resin, widely used in lumpy water craft. Up until the time we sold her, just over 2 years ago, everything was holding up well.

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27 minutes ago, dave moore said:

When we put Resolute together some 20 years ago, we opted for wooden handrails in opepe...

Nice :)

 

Did you find it a lot more expensive than Iroko or did you never compare because you knew you wanted Opepe?

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1 hour ago, dave moore said:

When we put Resolute together some 20 years ago, we opted for wooden handrails in opepe, slide runners similarly, whilst doors and slide tops were in 18 mm birch ply. We were, and still are , very traditionally minded. All of these were resinised, coated with a couple of coats of West System resin, widely used in lumpy water craft. Up until the time we sold her, just over 2 years ago, everything was holding up well.

When you mention the West System for protecting ply people throw their hands up and say you can do it far cheaper with other things. Time tells you the answer.

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We were guided by the fellow doing the work. He’d worked at the yard in Malcolm Braine’s times, gone on to build world class racing dinghies and then resumed his boat fitting work. To be honest, the finished job was more important than the price. 

Resolute was the company demonstrator for Norton Canes Boatbuilders, Graham went on to build 7 or 8 similar boats because of her.

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10 hours ago, dave moore said:

Of course not. We just rode the traditional horse, swimming against the tide. Still do....

Some of us are swimming with you Dave.  I have replaced all of my sliders with marine ply and then resin coated.  The originals had a bonded aluminium sheet on top so I did the same with the new ones.  The originals lasted 25 years (before the ply delaminated) so hopefully the new ones will do the same.

Edited by GRLMK38
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Thank you. We are, I feel, very much a minority, a view shared by many of the old timers that I have contact with. I suppose that it’s inevitable as time passes, though I find it sad that many relative newcomers have little interest in the old ways I’ve always espoused. I’ll plod on, I suppose, still kicking and splashing in the cut of life.....?

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44 minutes ago, dave moore said:

Thank you. We are, I feel, very much a minority, a view shared by many of the old timers that I have contact with. I suppose that it’s inevitable as time passes, though I find it sad that many relative newcomers have little interest in the old ways I’ve always espoused. I’ll plod on, I suppose, still kicking and splashing in the cut of life.....?

I’m with you too....if you fancy a laugh I’ll send you some pictures of my attempts at scumbling on my cabin doors...?...I’m not sure it does your decoration justice and if you fancy doing a back cabin......

 

I’m a big fan of west system....works really well on all external woodwork. 

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