Web Extra: Choosing Wood for Outdoor Projects

Grit Staff

For most outdoor projects, naturally rot-resistant wood is a good idea. Use this table to find the right decay-resistant species for your project.

Resistant or very resistant	Moderately resistant	Slightly or nonresistant
Baldcypress (old growth)¹ Catalpa Cedars Cherry, black Chestnut Cypress, Arizona Junipers Locust, black³ Mulberry, red³ Oak, bur Oak, chestnut Oak, Gambel Oak, Oregon white Oak, post Oak, white Osage-orange³ Redwood Sassafras Walnut, black Yew, Pacific³	Baldcypress (young growth)³ Douglas-fir Honeylocust² Larch, western Oak, swamp chestnut Pine, eastern white¹ Pine, longleaf¹ Pine, slash¹ Tamarack	Alder Ashes Aspens Basswood Beech Birches Buckeye² Butternut Cottonwood Elms Hackberry Hemlocks Hickories Magnolia Maples Oak (red and black species)² Pines (most other species)² Poplar Spruces Sweetgum² Sycamore Willows Yellow-poplar

¹ The southern and eastern pines and baldcypress are now largely second-growth, with a large proportion of sapwood. Consequently, it is no longer practicable to obtain substatial quantities of heartwood lumber in these species for general building purposes.
² These species, or certain species within the groups sown, are indicated to have higher decay resistance than most of the other woods in their respective categories.
³ These woods have exceptionally high decay resistance.

Source: Forest Products Laboratory, Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture. Comparative Decay Resistance of Heartwood of Native Species. U.S. Forest Service Research Note, FPL-0153. January 1967. Available at: www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/fplrn/fplrn153.pdf.