Which wood for picket fence?

[Qweaver]

A customer wants 3/4" x 6" x 6' fence boards.  All I have on hand is poplar, white pine and ash.  I think he might be better off buying treated fence boards from the box store.  But we use poplar for siding...so why not for fence boards?

[Magicman]

If the Poplar is stickered and dried, I personally would not hesitate to use it.

[pineywoods]

If the Poplar is stickered and dried, I personally would not hesitate to use it.

Find yourself some cypress or heart eastern red cedar. No rot.

[Magicman]

Find yourself some cypress or heart eastern red cedar. No rot.  

But, they were not on the list of lumber that he has.

[aksawyer]

Dont know about your poplar down there,but the poplar up here in the interior of alaska,our poplar makes great fence boards.We sold 1x6x6 ft. to the local army base about seven wears ago they still look great.Aksawyer

[SwampDonkey]

aksawyer, the south, below the snow line, call tuliptree, which is a species of magnolia, poplar or yellow-poplar. Poplar to us, as is it's latin name Populus, is aspen to them derived as a common name. All mills in this region say poplar, meaning (largetooth and trembling aspen) and balm-of-gilead (balsam poplar var. balsamifera). Same goes on with ironwood, means something different depending on where you live. People like to be different as everyone knows. ;)

[SwampDonkey]

In that list of lumber, I would think ash would hold up longer and it's not as wet when green. Now as far as white pine, if it was a dead stub in a  forest it would stand for decades. I've seen new forest grow up around fire killed pine.

Too bad you haven't any type of cedar though. Up my way all we have for cedar is northern (eastern white) ceder for fences. Other than that, treated spruce or pine I discovered that they will even dye our northern cedar a red and call it red cedar mulch. :

[Qweaver]

Thanks for the replies.  I have lots of Ash stacked and dry but it is all cut 4/4, 8" to 10" width and 8' to 10' lengths.  That's the problem with pre cutting  and stacking.  If I had 12" x 12' then I could easily recut to his needs.  I may try to find a source for cedar.  Is any type of cedar, red or white, OK?   Our little tornado last week distroyed his fence so this job would be for about 600' of fence.  So about 1800 BdFt of lumber.  I might also be able to sell him the 2x4s out of cedar.  I don't mind making 2x4s when I can take boards off of both sides and leave a 4" cant in the center and slice that into straight 2x4s.

[Norm]

Ash in my area is like candy to PPB's.

[Ron Wenrich]

I don't know if I would use any of your wood on hand for a picket fence.  The problem will be if there is any ground contact.  Poplar or pine used in siding is ok, since there isn't any ground contact. 

Cedar would be good, if you can find it.  Red or white should be ok, but red would be the preferred.  My second choice for fence boards would be oak.  They can withstand the elements fairly well, and can take more ground contact.

Other than that, maybe a trip to the box store would be in order.  Its hard to beat pressure treat for durability.  How much better would your price be from the store bought?

[Cedarman]

We make a lot of 2x4 for fences out of cedar.  Usually 1 5/8" x 3 1/2" x 8'  You can easily make these from a 5" log.  Good use for those small logs.  ERC pickets bend or warp very little compared to treated wood. Plus no chemicals are used as preservatives.
I would like to see a lot more cedar used as fencing as there are huge amounts of ERC going to waste in this country.

[bandmiller2]

"Q" if the fella uses pressure treat posts and stringers pine will do fine as long as theirs no ground contact.Best life would be to apply a preserving stain to the pickets,which could be done with a garden pump up sprayer.I just put in a fence, PT posts white oak stringers and 4" wide W.pine pickets, not holding my breath until it rots away.Frank C.