Red white Wood

[alanthomaswatson]

All

Thought I had posted this last night but doesn't seem to have gone through.

I was pricing some timber at my local yard and was asked if I wanted red or white wood (T&G floorboards). Forgive my ignorance, but what's the difference?

Thanks

Alan.

 

[merlin50]

the colour

 

[alanthomaswatson]

Thanks.

Do you mean the colour as it comes from diffferent species? Is one better suited to tasks than others? Is the price much different?

Alan

 

[WoodYouLike]

what wood-species are they offering? Oak (Red Oak is from America) or pine?

 

[Patochik]

They are most likely offering you a choice of redwood (Scots Pine/Pinus sylvestris) or whitewood (Spruce/Picea spp) - you would be fairly hard pushed to tell the difference as a general DIY-er. Broadly speaking redwood is slightly better quality but not much in it, you get some whitwood productions/grades that are better than whitewood but its horses for courses in the main. Both species are used widely in the UK for general purpose joinery and mainly just traded under the name "softwood".

There is also an outside chance he is offering you a choice between white wood (white softwood as aboe) or red hardwood - something along the lines of a meranti or sapele, but I would say this is extremely unlikely and the top answer is by far the most probably.