Western Red Cedar

Western Red Cedar

Durability:

The timber is durable. Standing trees liable to attack by the Western Cedar borer and seasoned timber liable to attack by common furniture beetle. Resistant to preservative treatment.

Mechanical Properties:

Western Red Cedar has low bending and crushing strength, with very low stiffness and resistance to shock loads. Steam bending classification is very poor.

Seasoning:

Thin stock dries readily with little degrade, but thicker sizes tend to hold moisture at the centre and care is needed to avoid internal honeycombing and collapse. This is especially true of UK timber. There is small movement in service.

Uses:

  • Glass house and shed construction
  • Shingles
  • Interior finishing
  • Exterior boarding and cladding
  • Beehive construction
  • Poles, posts and fences
Get in Touch

Description

Western Red Cedar is straight grained, rather coarse textured, with a prominent growth ring figure and non-resinous. The timber’s heartwood shows considerable colour variation when fresh, from a dark chocolate-brown to a salmon pink colour, perhaps variegated, maturing down to a reddish-brown and, in time, to silver-grey – this weathered appearance sometimes sought-after by architects. Weight is 370 kg/m³ (23 lb/ft³); specific gravity .37.

Additional information

Latin Name

Thuja plicata

Family Name

Cupressaceae

Distribution

Canada, USA and introduced into the UK and New Zealand

Also know as

British Columbia red cedar (UK); giant arborvitae (USA); red cedar (Canada)

Timber you may like

  • Siberian Larch

    The resinous heartwood is pale red-brown to brick red in colour, with clearly marked annual rings. The wood is straight grained, contains knots, and has a fine uniform texture. Weight about 590 kg/m³ (37 lb/ft³); specific gravity .59.

  • Douglas Fir

    Douglas Fir's heartwood is a light reddish-brown shade, and the contrast between earlywood and latewood provides a prominent growth ring figure which shows as an abrupt colour contrast on plain sawn timber and rotary cut veneers. The timber is straight grained but sometimes with wavy or spiral grain and with a uniform medium texture. Weight 530 kg/m³ (33 lb/ft³); specific gravity .53.

  • Southern Yellow Pine

    The sapwood is narrow in the better grades, sometimes up to 50mm wide, lighter in colour than the heartwood which is yellowish-brown to reddish-brown. Both species are typical of the hard-pine class, being resinous, with the growth-rings usually well-marked by the contrast between the light-coloured early-wood, and the dense, darker-coloured late-wood, which produces a rather coarse texture in the wood, especially in fairly rapidly grown material with its wide growth-rings. The timbers weigh about 670 kg/m³ on average when dried. The lower density material of P. palustris and P. elliottii together with other species termed southern yellow pine, is lighter in weight, coarser in texture, inferior in strength, and usually has a wider sapwood, sometimes as wide as 150mm.

  • Alaskan Yellow Cedar

    Heartwood is a light yellow. Sapwood is a similar whitish/pale yellow maturing down to a reddish-brown and, in time, to silver-grey. Weight 495kg/m3