It should go without saying that the first and most crucial step in any outdoor-facing project is selecting a fantastic exterior-compatible species of wood. Depending on the species you select, you could be setting yourself up for instant success or instant failure, because some wood species just cannot withstand severe weather. Wood cladding should be no different, since you want your home’s exterior to operate well.
Although we are pleased to work with our clients to help them select the best wood species as needed, it occurred to us to “do the math” in advance and to create finished wood cladding lines that begin with the finest species and then concentrate on other design features like color and texture. This led to the introduction at J Gibson McIlvain Company of our Alpha cladding, a ready-made formulation that guarantees a dependable end product with a stunning appearance for external applications.
Which Type of Wood Cladding to Select?
We consistently began the Alpha cladding lines development process with the same six exterior-friendly wood species: White Oak, Thermally Modified Ash, Sapele, Jatoba, Cypress, and Western Red Cedar. Finding the ideal combinations required a lot of trial and error. Even though there are a ton of other amazing exterior wood species to consider, our aim with Alpha was to produce a variety of unique designs that are all reasonably priced.
These species are absolutely gorgeous with a variety of stunning looks, and they all have excellent reputations for performance in outdoor settings. Ultimately, though, the comparable costs of the species selected allowed us to design collections of looks without one or two of those appearances being significantly more expensive. This permits us to keep a standardized pricing pattern for our whole Alpha cladding offering.
Experiments examining textures, wood grains, and finishes in each of these species produced some intriguing findings. Our white and grey color options contained one of the most powerful messages on the significance of species choice. Three panel photos featuring Southampton, Coronado, and St. Croix from a few of our regional collections are shown below.
You might be surprised to learn that all three of them utilize the exact same White finish. It is very evident that the wood species underlying the finish actually controls the appearance of overall color. This image clearly demonstrates Southampton’s use of Western Red Cedar, a species noted for its inherent color variety. Thermally Modified Ash, a wood species used in Coronado, provides us a dark brown base that makes the white finish look worn gray. White Oak, a species with a pale tint and coarse grains, is the first species found in St. Croix. The most consistently white option in our Alpha cladding collections is produced by the White Oak, which acts as a blank canvas for the white finish.
The Alpha development team changed the underlying species used for Carmel as well as for Mystic just before our official launch, as can be seen in the instance below.
This choice was taken in real time. We selected Thermally Modified Ash after conducting preliminary testing, but as we scaled up to produce a high-quality factory finish, we found that our original species would be too dark, which would have prevented the finish from looking the way we wanted. The answer was White Oak, which has a more pleasing grain pattern and a lighter background color that effectively shows off the finish as intended.
Selecting the appropriate species is crucial for any kind of project, be it decking, soffits, or wood cladding. With each iteration of our Alpha products, we’ve discovered how crucial the proper species is for the end products. It is the crucial first stage that determines the success of the remainder of the production process and installation, and once installed, it plays a major role in the product’s longevity.
Keep in mind that the species’ general performance in challenging outdoor conditions is more important in this step than appearance. An inadequate external wood workpiece will not be improved by any amount of sophisticated finishing. The proper kinds of wood must be used first. We consider ourselves quite fortunate that the exterior-friendly species found in our Alpha collections are also among the most exquisite that we have ever laid eyes on!
Click here to view the McIlvain Alpha Cladding options.
