O/T White Fur wood

37 chief · Aug 30, 2010

I bought some white fur to use as a small covered porch floor. What is the difference between Doug fur, and white fur othre than the color. Thanks, Stan

Anonymous-0 · Aug 30, 2010

There is not a lot of difference other than the species name. Those are all soft wood types. They don't take traffic that well but they are easy to work with and should be fine for a porch.

MarkB_MI · Aug 31, 2010

If it's not labeled "Douglas Fir", it's hard to say what it might be. Could be Larch. If it's truly White Fir, I'd be hesitant to use it outdoors. Very few softwoods have good rot resistance other than Douglas Fir and yellow pine. From the Wikipedia article below:

"White Fir wood is soft, knotty and not very strong nor very resistant to parasites; it is used in small amounts for paper making, packing crates and other cheap construction work."

A few weeks back I was in Home Depot an discovered they had a fresh load of Douglas Fir 2x4 studs. This happens rarely; I guess some buyer accidentally ordered good wood by mistake. Anyway, I loaded up on them and made a small workbench. That stuff was TOUGH! I couldn't drive a drywall screw into it straight; the grain would make the screw go crooked every time. I ended up drilling pilot holes for all my screws.

36 Coupe · Aug 31, 2010

I avoid fir because the grain will lead spikes and split.Very hard compared to spruce.

Mike (WA) · Aug 31, 2010

As noted by others, white fir is inferior in strength and resistance to rot. I don't think I've ever seen it milled into lumber around here- we have Douglas fir (the best) and hemlock (strong enough, but more brittle- harder to get a nail in straight, especially when it gets real dry).

Used to get construction grade "Hem-Fir"- mixture of hemlock and fir in the same unit, usually being about one piece of fir for every hundred or so hemlock- but since the downturn, we see more and more straight Doug fir, as it brings a little premium in price. And you can't sell hem-fir in the box stores, because everybody picks through and leaves the hemlock.

O/T White Fur wood

37 chief

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Anonymous-0

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MarkB_MI

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36 Coupe

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Mike (WA)

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