Wood experts needed

[FordDude]

I have a typical southern California home, stucco and wood. Some the wood trim needs to be replaced. Now a neighbor just had some of his replaced before he had his house painted. It is the south side of the house that needs replacing, in my case the backside of my home. I had not really thought about doing it until he had it done. Now my question is what kind of wood should I use? His dude did not use the stuff off the shelf at the Depot or Lowes. She would only say that it was "expensive" wood, because she did not know what he used. What I am looking at is 2x8 from 10 feet to 16 feet. Before the last trim painting I prep it by scraping and sanding and applying primer. One area I added lag bolts to try to pull it in towards the house as the wood was warping or curling. He paid over 4k to have it fixed. I am hoping that by doing it myself it can be done for a quarter of the cost. Maybe even less than that because he had trim around the doors and windows done and I do not need that.

fd

 

[Anonymous]

You could use some 3/4" Extira. It's waterproof MDF and we use it for all our c-top substrates.

http://www.extira.com/

 

[guruatbol]

If there is no scolloping, just get sheets of MDF and cut it to size on a table saw.

For Southern painted trim I like stuff that is not expensive and easy to replace if needed. I have seen some stuff that looks like wood on some job sites that is kind of like the stuff used on decks down in St. George in the hot desert.

I saw some stuff years ago that was made of a wood and light weight concrete mix...They were using it as ships lathe siding.

Besides MDF is nice and flat and paints well.

Mel

 

[SAC69]

I've replaced the trim around a few windows too and the last one IIRC was a manufactured product, but I can't be sure. It was from Home Depot or Lowes, preprimed, with a wood appearance on the face. What ever you decide to use, I'd recommend painting the backside too, not just the face. That way, if water gets behind it, it won't rot (as fast?) as if it was bare, even though you should be caulking the preimeter anyway.