Ask DIY Dave — Real Answers,
No Nonsense

Honest answer — yes, you should be concerned. H2 is rated for indoor protected use only. It has no meaningful resistance to rot or fungal decay outdoors. How quickly it deteriorates depends on your climate and how much sun and rain it gets. If it's already looking rough after one year, I'd keep a close eye on the joists and bearer posts especially — those carry the load and if they soften you've got a safety issue. When you redo it, use H3 for deck boards and H4 for anything going into or close to the ground. It's covered in detail in the Timber Guide Chapter 3.

Classic oak and iron reaction — the tannins in oak react with iron or steel to produce iron tannate, which is jet black and permanent. It's the same chemical process used to make ink. The staining won't sand out because it goes into the wood fibres. Your options are: embrace it and use an ebonising finish to make it consistent, or fill and refinish with tinted filler. Going forward, always use brass, stainless steel or coated fixings in oak. This is one of the most common beginner mistakes with hardwoods — you're not alone.

Good question. Danish oil is a pure penetrating oil — it soaks in, cures from within, and leaves nothing on the surface. Beautiful natural look and feel, easy to apply, but not very resistant to water or heat. Hardwax oil penetrates AND leaves a micro-thin protective wax layer on top. Much more durable for a coffee table that'll have cups, glasses and daily use on it. For rimu specifically — which is a gorgeous, relatively soft NZ native — I'd go hardwax oil every time. It protects without obscuring that lovely warm grain. Apply thin coats, buff between, and the result is excellent.

You're not doing anything wrong — you're experiencing wood movement, which is completely normal and predictable. Oak expands significantly across the grain as humidity rises in summer. The fix going forward is to build drawers slightly narrower than the opening (2–3mm each side) to allow for seasonal expansion. For your existing drawer, a light hand plane along the sides in summer when it's stuck will ease it — but take off less than you think you need, because it'll shrink back in winter. Chapter 5 of the Timber Guide covers this in detail with movement figures for oak specifically.

Please don't — MDF and water are a disaster combination. It'll swell, delaminate and fall apart within one good rainstorm. Save the MDF offcuts for an indoor painted project. For outdoor planters you want cedar (naturally rot resistant, light, easy to work), treated pine H3 at minimum, or if you want longevity, teak or hardwood. Cedar is the classic choice for planters — it even has natural oils that resist insects. A small cedar planter box is also a really satisfying beginner build. Lots of plans around for exactly that.

For a first furniture project I'd say Tasmanian Oak or American Ash — both are widely available, relatively affordable compared to walnut or cherry, take a finish really well, and are forgiving to cut and joint. They're also hard enough to make furniture that'll last. Avoid pine for furniture you want to look good — it dents too easily and doesn't finish as nicely. If budget allows, walnut is extraordinarily forgiving to work with despite being a premium timber — it planes beautifully, the colour is naturally stunning, and even a simple design looks impressive in walnut.

Maple is notorious for this — it has a very tight, closed grain that absorbs stain unevenly, especially around figure and growth rings. The instructions on the tin assume you're working with an open-grained timber. The fix is a wood conditioner or a wash coat of shellac applied before staining — this seals the surface partially and evens out the absorption. For a workbench top though, honestly I'd skip the stain and just use a hardwax oil or polyurethane clear — maple's natural pale colour is beautiful and the surface will be far more durable without the stain underneath.

Reclaimed jarrah — absolutely take it. Jarrah is one of the most durable and beautiful timbers available and old-growth reclaimed jarrah is often denser and higher quality than new plantation timber. The rich red-brown colour that comes with age is stunning. Yes there's work involved — pulling nails, cleaning up, possibly running it through a thicknesser — but for the price difference it's very much worth it. Check for any remaining nails or metal with a detector before you put it through any machines. Hidden nails and planer blades are a bad combination.

The silver-grey is completely natural — teak weathers to grey when its natural oils oxidise on the surface. The timber itself is perfectly fine underneath. To restore the warm honey-brown colour: give it a light sand with 120 grit to remove the grey surface layer, clean off the dust, then apply a penetrating teak oil. You'll see the colour come back immediately. It needs reapplication every 12 months or so in direct sun and rain. Alternatively just leave it grey — a lot of people actually prefer the weathered look and it requires zero maintenance.

LVL stands for Laminated Veneer Lumber — it's an engineered structural timber made by gluing many thin wood veneers together with the grain all running the same direction. The result is incredibly strong and consistent, much more so than solid timber of the same size. You'd use it when you need a long structural span — lintels over wide doorways or windows, floor beams, ridge beams, or anywhere a solid timber beam would need to be unrealistically large. It's not decorative — it's ugly and meant to be hidden. But structurally it's excellent and it's what most modern construction uses for beams. The Timber Guide glossary has a full entry on it.