Staining pine to look like Kwila

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nofam

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#290227 28-Oct-2021 19:25

Hi All, am looking at doing some landscaping, with a kwila deck around a spa pool and some raised planter boxes. To mitigate the cost somewhat I thought it might be feasible to build the planters out of pine and then stain them to match the actual kwila decking, so was wondering if anyone had done this and how closely the colours matched?

mdf

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#2803066 28-Oct-2021 19:53

You can match colours okay. Resene has a range of stains in different shades. The wood grain will always look very different though.

If you want it to match properly, I'd build planters out of pine retaining or landscaping timber and clad them in kwila decking.

mdf

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#2803068 28-Oct-2021 19:56

Having just reread your original post, be *very* careful with kwila around the spa. New kwila leaches off this red sap that will stain everything permanently. You really don't want the red stuff anywhere near a spa. Even wet feet can get stained red while it's new.

You might want to have a look at some alternatives. Personally I like vitex (similar price to kwila and commonly available. Accoya is awesome but soendy. Jatoba is nice if you can find it.

cshwone

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#2803070 28-Oct-2021 20:01

mdf: You can match colours okay. Resene has a range of stains in different shades. The wood grain will always look very different though.

If you want it to match properly, I'd build planters out of pine retaining or landscaping timber and clad them in kwila decking.

If you are trying to save on the expense of all kwila planters I would suggest, as above, making the planters out of pine but then painting a contrasting colour. Then make the top surround/ledge from kwila to blend them back in.

nofam

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#2803072 28-Oct-2021 20:11

mdf: You can match colours okay. Resene has a range of stains in different shades. The wood grain will always look very different though.

If you want it to match properly, I'd build planters out of pine retaining or landscaping timber and clad them in kwila decking.

Sorry, yes that's what I was thinking - treated pine with a kwila fascia (possibly the exact same decking timber to tie it all in).

nofam

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#2803073 28-Oct-2021 20:14

cshwone:

mdf: You can match colours okay. Resene has a range of stains in different shades. The wood grain will always look very different though.

If you want it to match properly, I'd build planters out of pine retaining or landscaping timber and clad them in kwila decking.

If you are trying to save on the expense of all kwila planters I would suggest, as above, making the planters out of pine but then painting a contrasting colour. Then make the top surround/ledge from kwila to blend them back in.

Thanks - yeah, I'm aware of the tannins that leak out - plan is to place a concrete pad for the spa and then deck around it, so ideally I'd get the decking completed and give it a week or two to bleed off with regular hosing before I installed the spa.

neb

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#2803779 29-Oct-2021 16:50

Another general thought about pine, if you're making planters from them then it's going to be in semi-permanent contact with soggy soil (rain in winter, watered in summer), so use at least H4, H3.2 won't do it despite being outdoors exposed-to-weather rated. And line the bits that will have soil in them with weed mat to try and keep it from direct contact with the soil.

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nofam

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#2803786 29-Oct-2021 17:19

neb: Another general thought about pine, if you're making planters from them then it's going to be in semi-permanent contact with soggy soil (rain in winter, watered in summer), so use at least H4, H3.2 won't do it despite being outdoors exposed-to-weather rated. And line the bits that will have soil in them with weed mat to try and keep it from direct contact with the soil.

Thanks Neb, yes I'd already thought about that - it makes sense that posts are H4, so planters that are constantly exposed to wet soil should be too. In terms of lining them, I was thinking about painting the insides with Gripset, or some kind of bituminous sealant.

mdf

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#2803790 29-Oct-2021 17:35

Polythene would be my go to for lining a planter box. Just do the sides though, you need to allow drainage at the bottom.

H4 has some pretty nasty stuff in it though. If you're planting veggies or letting kids do things, something naturally rot resistant might be better like macrocarpa. Bunnings (or at least my local bunnings) has some quite nice red cedar at the moment.

neb

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#2803811 29-Oct-2021 18:01

mdf: Polythene would be my go to for lining a planter box. Just do the sides though, you need to allow drainage at the bottom.

Wouldn't the polythene trap moisture between it and the wood, keeping it damp longer than necessary? That's why I went for weed mat, which will breathe.

(I have no idea which one would be better, both options seem to have their pros and cons).