My Favorite Wood for Exterior Projects: IPE Wood

Good afternoon, Brian here.

I wanted to take a minute to share with you one of my favorite hardwood materials for exterior projects. This product is called IPE. It is widely recognized as one of the hardest and most durable timbers on the market. The amazing thing about this wood is that – even without treatment – it’s naturally resistant to rot, decay, and termites for 25+ years. It doesn’t split, check, or twist like many other lumbers do and it’s much more durable than Cedar, Pressure Treated, or Pond. It’s an amazingly beautiful wood. We use it for decks, outdoor furniture, citing, and other similar things. It performs extremely, extremely well. I’m going to take a minute here and show you some pieces that we’ve got in the shop right now.

You can see the amazing, tight grain and color to this wood. When it weathers outside it’ll naturally turn gray, but you can lightly sand it and add an oil finish to darken it up. It really gives it a great look. There’s also a planter box you can see here in the back that we’ve been working on. This wood is an amazing, naturally resistant, hard, durable, life-long material. If you’re looking for furniture or are considering a deck project, but you don’t want the look of plastic composites, this material performs very well.