Though I am a semi-retired woodworker I have been asked to build a new front door. I have built other exterior doors over the years but this one is facing straight south no overhang. The general contractor was suggesting mahogany and it is going to be painted by the painting contractor.
So I am on the fence about what species and the exposure has me concerned.
Thoughts??

Vertical grain Sapele would be a good choice for cost, stability and a good painting surface. Genuine Mahogany would be nice in pattern grade as well but it's very costly if you can find it. Both are in effect quarter sawn materials which you will want for stability.

I've seen pine hold up in this situation but I wouldn't go that route myself as it doesn't have anywhere near the stability of Genuine Mahogany or Sapele.

BH Davis

For sure, no glass storm door! Will the painter also paint the bottom?

With all due respect, if you are asking what kind of wood to use, don't take on this project. Especially since you are semi retired. Tell them to buy a aluminum clad door and you can sleep well at night. Or (like some manufactures ) minimum 8' overhang or no warranty.

In a situation of bad exposure like this make sure the homeowner realizes the burden of maintenance is on him.
My guess is they will have to do something every 2 to 3 years if film finish, every 6months or year with oil finish and probably every 3 to 5 years if paint. A lot of variables here depending on your climate.

Mahogany is always a good choice. I would also consider Accoya if painted.

Pattern Grade Honduras Mahogany solids. Epoxy. No loose or applied moldings. Sikkens or paint, light color - no black or charcoal.

South facing is not as bad as East or West since the sun hits the door at an angle when above in the South. East or west, the sun is hitting more directly - at 90 degrees - and heating up the door. A dark finish, facing East, can get up to 200 degrees and stay there for a few hours. TBIII will lose most of its strength in such a situation.

Hi Tom,
Don't know where you are located or what your climate is. Or what stile of door your building. In a situation like yours we try to try to recommend a stile that does not have to many wide parts if the door is build from a solid wood. Like 3 narrow panels versus one wide panel. Sometimes we have plank stile panels with an uneven number of planks the center plank is a actual fixed mullion and there is an free floating panel on each side of it. This is all machined to look like one wide panel.
Regardless of stile i vote for Accoya glued with PUR of high heat resistance and a finish of light color. And no edges where water can sit or penetrate. The no overhang thing does not work all that well in our region as we get snow rain and also have stronger sun radiation do to elevation.

Fred

The Accoya sounds interesting.

How does it machine?

What does it cost?

Hi Pat,

In Western Canada it sells for around 4/4 @ 8.5$, 6/4 @ 9.8$, 8/4 @ 10$ a board foot.
this is in Canadian $.

Click the link below to download the file included with this post.

UCFP_Accoya_Exterior_bro__2__2.pdf

Thanks Fred

It looks like it would paint well

It looks like it would stay straight?

The lumber yard said it was radiata pine. Mostly clear it appears

I'm guessing pretty soft?

$7.50 a bd ft

I wonder what Gene would say about it.

With a 50 year warranty!

Apparently Accoya is a known and accepted material, new to me.

I don't have to worry as the GC is going with an Amish guy. But I kinda foresee problems. He is going to use Spanish Cedar and even though it is a south facing exposure they are going to have a storm door.

Tom - Storm door? Yes, that will cause its own set of problems. But it is hard to beat the public perception of Amish. They are not Shakers, but odd religious beliefs and good craftsmanship have somehow conflated in the American view of the Amish.

I have had a few discussions with others about Accoya - peripheral people here on Woodweb. It is almost all favorable. Negatives were: it smelled like vinegar (it is vinegar - that is part of the treatment process. It also requires a bit of care in painting as you don't just slap any kind of builder beige on it.

I have heard good things about workability, and stability in service. There also seemed to be a caveat about glues - which is proper to use and which are not.

I wrote to one vendor and never heard back. Went to the next level up and - never heard back. I took it as an omen and have not tried again to try some. It is well outside of our usual lumber sources, so I do not think about it.

Hi David,

We glued our original tests on Accoya with titebond 3 an they did actually hold. On paying jobs we don't use it on exterior doors. Some of the work we did with Accoya was glued with epoxy. We have now switched to a Loctite PUR glue that's formulated to work with Accoya.

Click the link below to download the file included with this post.

Loctite.pdf