Choosing timber for construction or furniture: a practical selection guide

Choosing timber is not just choosing a species — it is matching a species, a grade and a piece of material to what the job actually demands. This is a practical framework for that decision, building on Know your wood for species detail.

Start with the demand the job places on the wood, not the species name

Before naming a species, define what the timber actually has to do: carry structural load, resist moisture or ground contact, take daily wear as furniture, or simply look good in a low-stress decorative role. Those are different demands with different answers, and starting from the job rather than a preferred species avoids the common mistake of choosing an attractive wood that is simply not suited to the use.

Structural and load-bearing work

For beams, roof structure, decking or anything bearing load or exposed to weather and ground contact, durability and strength matter more than appearance. Azobe is a standard choice here specifically because of its density and natural resistance to decay and insect attack — properties that matter far more on a roof beam than grain figure does. Structural work also demands a higher, more consistent grade: straight grain, minimal knots, no splits that compromise strength. This is not the place to accept a discounted piece with visible defects because it is cheaper — a defect that is merely unsightly in a decorative piece can be a genuine safety issue in a structural one.

Doors, window frames and semi-structural joinery

This middle category needs durability — doors and frames are exposed to handling, weather at the threshold, and years of use — combined with enough workability to cut clean joints. Iroko is a common choice precisely because it sits in this middle ground: durable and dimensionally stable enough for exterior exposure, workable enough for the joinery a door or frame requires.

Furniture: balance weight, workability and appearance

For furniture, the calculation shifts toward workability, weight and appearance, with durability still relevant but less extreme than for structural work. Ayous suits furniture where lighter weight, ease of shaping and lower cost matter — cabinetry, panelling, everyday pieces. Sapele suits furniture where durability and a richer appearance matter more, and where the extra weight and cost are worth it for a piece meant to last and to look a particular way.

Decorative and accent pieces

Where a piece exists primarily to look distinctive — an accent table, a decorative panel — appearance can lead the choice more than it would elsewhere. Padouk's vivid colour is the clearest example of a species chosen substantially for how it looks rather than for structural or general-purpose properties. This is the one category where prioritising appearance over the practical factors that dominate elsewhere is a reasonable, deliberate choice rather than a mistake.

Grade matters as much as species

Within any species, the grade of an individual piece — how straight it is, how many knots or defects it has, how consistently it was sawn and dried — affects its suitability for a job as much as the species itself does. A high grade of an ordinary species will often outperform a poor-grade piece of an expensive one for a given job. Inspect the actual piece in front of you, not just the label on the species.

Ask your carpenter or supplier to explain their recommendation

A supplier or carpenter with real experience will usually have opinions about what suits your job, and a good one can explain those opinions in terms of the demands above — load, exposure, workability, appearance — rather than simply asserting that one species is "better." That explanation is itself a useful signal about who you are dealing with, in the same way covered in How to verify your furniture.