Thread: Durability of timbers

Hello Charlieart.
We had some discussion in an earlier thread in which I was a bit unkind. Sorry.
If I tell you ironbark, 25 years; tallowwood, 150 years it won't help you much. These are a Australian timbers, this is an Australian forum. You really have to ask the question in UK.
We've been labelling our in-ground mother stock for 30 years and the only satisfactory label we have found is engraved or embossed aluminium. Plastic labels last 6 months to maybe 3 years depending on composition, but the naming is a problem. Laser printing and "permanent" markers all have limited life outdoors.
The Australian National Botanical Gardens, for instance, originally used Trefolite labels. You may not know the term but it is very common, 2 contrasting layers of plastic and engraving shows the characters in the contrasting colour. But the short life outside caused them to switch to engraved aluminium.
Not very encouraging, am I?

Your question dosen't really have any simple answer. It depends on the type of timber and the environmental conditions.

Given your location there must be lots of examples where timbers have been in place for 100's of years which would assit you and answer your question.

Originally Posted by Wizened of Oz

Hello Charlieart.
If I tell you ironbark, 25 years; tallowwood, 150 years it won't help you much.

ironbark will las more like 250 years.

As an imported Australian, I still have some knowledge of old world timber... Cypress was good for a few hundred years in the London Bridge, IIRC. Alas, we tend to last much less ON the garden before we end IN the garden.

hmm yeah i probably should have been a bit ,ore specific. i was thinking ,ore for the following woods when exsposed to mild frost, mild rain and mild UV;

Cherry
Oak
Walnut
Redwood
Maple
Sapele