Thread: Timber gate

Originally Posted by spabondo

Hi fellow woodworkers/tradesmen! I'm building a gate w1350 h1150 to be clad with River Reds decking boards coated with Cabots Natural Decking Oil.I've chosen Western Red Cedar for the frame these boards will be screwed to so as to keep the weight down.I considered having some River Reds timber milled to 90x42 but that would make the clad gate around 60 kg! It'll be hinged off a 'Reds' jamb.My question is how would the Cedar color hold up externally and what coating would be best to apply to avoid the typical 'darkening' of the cedar over time?

You haven't said what the gate is for but if you want to save weight i sounds like you have the framing and the cladding timbers the wrong way around 90 x 42 would be a fair size for the frame but you could probably get away with 19 mm thick cladding in WRC.

Why not do the lot in WRC to keep the weight down? You will always get some darkening but it wont grey off with the oil, so long as you keep the oil up to it.

BobL,thanks.It's the front gate to be built into the front brick fence to my house.Clad with WRC would be light, however, i after cladding that will keep it's color to match the rest of the color palet.So the WRC cladding would eventually loose it's lovely color.I'm going to reduce to dimensions of the frame timber and do it in Jarrah ie have it milled to 80x30,change a few things to keep the weight down.
Thankyou.

Thanks rustynail,the oiled WRC wouldn't give me the dark red cladding color i'm looking for,a cedar frame color difference doesn't worry me but for frame rigidity i'm going to go with frame components of a lighter guage.

Thanks for your advice.

Originally Posted by spabondo

BobL,thanks.It's the front gate to be built into the front brick fence to my house.Clad with WRC would be light, however, i after cladding that will keep it's color to match the rest of the color palet.So the WRC cladding would eventually loose it's lovely color.I'm going to reduce to dimensions of the frame timber and do it in Jarrah ie have it milled to 80x30,change a few things to keep the weight down.
Thankyou.

It won't matter what timber or finish you use, unless you are prepared to refinish every 18 months or so it will lose its color. When I was younger and keen to convince myself that I was prepared to devote the time every few years to recoating a set of exposed Jarrah window frames I used an expensive marine grade UV resistant clear finish. Every 18 months I religiously sanded and recoated and after the third time of doing this I gave up and painted the bloody things and 12 years on they still don't need painting

Originally Posted by BobL

Every 18 months I religiously sanded and recoated and after the third time of doing this I gave up and painted the bloody things and 12 years on they still don't need painting

Haven't had to repaint in 12 years ...... It must have been the 54+ months of prepainting prep work that helped

Originally Posted by Sir Stinkalot

Haven't had to repaint in 12 years ...... It must have been the 54+ months of prepainting prep work that helped

Around that time I decided to buy paint by a company called Solaguard. It was a little more expensive but I hate painting so I was prepared to give it a go. I don't know what they put in that paint but is has been excellent. It has also not gone off or sediment out in the can. All my other cans of paint (berger, dulux Taubmans) stored under the same conditions have all gone off or the cans have rusted out.

Thanks for all the advice.I priced the milled Jarrah and it's ourageously expensive,so,looked again at the WRC frame option again but with River Reds decking cladding it would be a mish -mash of colors so we're getting a galvanised poder coated frame made (to the color we want) and then cladding it with the River Reds,oiled,this won't be as bulky looking.I'll try and talk 'she who must be obeyed' into accepting the cladding be painted.I know that Solaguard is a great product,i've used Dulux Weathershield on the house and it's an equally good product.If she's she definite about the oil,i'll ask if she'd like to do the maintenance!

Bunnings sell aready made gate frame FortressIthink the brand is might be a quicker and cheaper option for you