Cottonwood for trailer deck? vs Oak?

[Dave989]

So I've been told that cottonwood makes for excellent trailer deck lumber. Being that it is lighter and just as tough as oak. I am looking to see if anyone else has heard this or used cottonwood for trailer decks. Also what are the uses for cottonwood and the typical market/pricing

[Brad_bb]

I've heard this too and wondering the same thing...

[killamplanes]

U couldnt convince me it will hold up against white or bur oak. But we do build sheds and things with cottonwood, just dont contact with ground u wont like the result (rots very quickly).   But inside shed works good. It is very plentifull here and cheap easy to cut...

[barbender]

     Cottonwood lumber is pretty similar to aspen I think. I redecked my GN trailer 7 years ago with bur oak, I ran short so I used some aspen I had on hand to fill in the 2' up the middle where my equipment tires wouldn't touch.  7 years on the bur oak is still in good shape, the aspen is starting to fall apart. Moreover, it is quite brittle. If you are moving dozers or forestry equipment with tire chains that tears decks up bad, and you end up replacing it every couple of years, the aspen is (or cottonwood) is quite serviceable, another reason I've been told folks liked it was dozer grousers can bite into it so they don't slide. But if you want a deck that will last 8-10 years, white oak is the way to go.

[barbender]

     The reason I mention the aspen being brittle- the other day I was moving some big bur oak logs, and I accidentally dropped one on the deck of the trailer. It bounced off of the bur oak decking, and broke the aspen. So it doesn't take impacts very well.

[dgdrls]

Good material for Horse Stalls and fence.  Horses won't chew on it.

Dan

[ladylake]

 One trailer company up here advertises cottonwood on their trailer decks, I sure would use some kind of preservative on it but think if its not wet all the time it will last a while.  Unlike aspen cottonwood has a real snarly grain that hard to split with a wood splitter.  Steve

[ozarkgem]

maybe your cottonwood is different than mine but I wouldn't put it on a trailer floor. A white oak family would be much better. Its only used for pallets here. Rots pretty fast.

[Ox]

I've been told that cottonwood, aspen, poplar/popple are all basically the same thing.  Any truth to this?

[Hiway40frank]

Heres whats going on, in some areas some people call aspen cottonwood. This is different from the "cottonwood" tree wich has balls of "fluff" or "cotton". From what I have read cottonwood (not aspen) makes great decking because it has more give than oak while still holding the same load. So if you have cottonwood go for it if its aspen I would not even consider it.
From online- "cottonwood is found from Alaska south to baja CA and east to the Dakotas only growing along rivers and streams avoiding hot dry climates" "aspen is found in more states than any other tree but only in a few areas of oregon"


So that should help identify if its aspen or cottonwood.

[Ox]

Thanks for the info, frank.  I was thinking all along, if this cottonwood is popple I wouldn't even waste the time to cut it down!  I guess furniture makers like it.  I pass it by except maybe for some indoor trim or something.

[jmouton]

ill tell you what,, we put  cottonwood on 2 trailer decks so far , one was an inch thick,, light duty ,  wouldnt do it again unless i put more screws in it to hold it down better, now the 1.5 inch  is a ten ton and it has lasted 3 years so far and  it looks awesome ,granted he doesnt haul a dozer or excavator but he does haul a 8,000 pd tractor and logs for me from time to time ,  it gets used alot,, and i would  for sure do it again ,,i have alot of cottonwood around us


                                                                                                        jim


                                                                                       

[WDH]

Cottonwood and aspen are in the same genus.  Closely related.

[Ox]

I find it fascinating that two trees that are closely related and in the same genus can be so different when it comes to usefulness and toughness in outdoor situations.  Kind of like red and white oaks.

[sandsawmill14]

cottonwood ( the real cottonwood that has the fuzzy cotton like stuff on it ) here does not  behave at all like poplar around here but i dont know how rot resistant it is as i have never used it ??? it is generally thought of as useless  :-\

but for the record we have 16m-18m bdft of it sawed right now that needs a home if anyone needs some ;D  :D :D :D

[DRB]

My experience with cottonwood is that it is very wet and heavy when sawn very light when dry. Rots very quick so no good in a moist place.  The wood is soft and not very strong.  For a light duty deck that is kept dry it would probably be okay but White oak would be my choice for a trailer deck. It is suitable for framing and sheeting a building though I believe pine or fir would be better because cottonwood rots so easy. I know we used it for siding and as long as it was kept painted and not in contact with the ground it was okay.  Aspen is a whole different critter it is a lot harder then cottonwood though it has no rot resistance either.

[KirkD]

My experience with cottonwood is that it is very wet and heavy when sawn very light when dry. Rots very quick so no good in a moist place.  The wood is soft and not very strong.  For a light duty deck that is kept dry it would probably be okay but White oak would be my choice for a trailer deck. It is suitable for framing and sheeting a building though I believe pine or fir would be better because cottonwood rots so easy. I know we used it for siding and as long as it was kept painted and not in contact with the ground it was okay.  Aspen is a whole different critter it is a lot harder then cottonwood though it has no rot resistance either.

I have been wondering if the cottonwood we have out west is different that back east because my experience is a lot like yours any of it I have ever seen hit the ground no one cuts they just leave it. It is so wet and heavy that if you cut a round off for firewood you cannot split it. If you let it dry enough that you can it is already rotting.

[sandhills]

We decked an old under slung hay mover with rough cut 2x12 that lasted probably 20ish ? years, always had old , wet hay left on it after unloading and it lived outside.  It was lucky if it got 1 treatment of used motor oil a year.  The same lumber yard we got it from also makes feed bunks for cattle out of them.

[Hiway40frank]

My experience with cottonwood is that it is very wet and heavy when sawn very light when dry. Rots very quick so no good in a moist place.  The wood is soft and not very strong.  For a light duty deck that is kept dry it would probably be okay but White oak would be my choice for a trailer deck. It is suitable for framing and sheeting a building though I believe pine or fir would be better because cottonwood rots so easy. I know we used it for siding and as long as it was kept painted and not in contact with the ground it was okay.  Aspen is a whole different critter it is a lot harder then cottonwood though it has no rot resistance either.

I have been wondering if the cottonwood we have out west is different that back east because my experience is a lot like yours any of it I have ever seen hit the ground no one cuts they just leave it. It is so wet and heavy that if you cut a round off for firewood you cannot split it. If you let it dry enough that you can it is already rotting.

Cottonwood does not grow in the east. Here people just call aspen cottonwood.

[Brad_bb]

For clarity, this is Cottonwood which is very common in the midwest(IL, IN).  I've seen it in Denver too on the lower plains.  In the mountains they have actual Aspen, a very different tree.

This Cottonwood is an extremely fast grower and I'd say is probably grows to the largest diameter in the midwest.  I've seen 6 ft dia.  I have a couple Cottonwoods in my pasture which in 15 years have grown to 15 inches.  They will grow quite tall also, rivaling most other native trees.  The bark is thick and has deep - I'm sure there's a name for it - grooves.


  


  


 

[Ox]

That looks an awful lot like poplar.  Bark's a little different, I think.

[sandsawmill14]

heres a couple of pics a little closer

  

 
this is cotton wood  notice the color of the heartwood these logs were sound and had been cut about 1 week when those pics where taken


 
this last pic is poplar tulip to be exact  sorry i dont have better pics of the poplar but thats all i had in
my gallery :-\  the poplar is dark too in the pics but those logs had been down about 2 months when that pic was taken but it sawed out deep yellow where the cottonwood is brown its hard to see in the pic but the bark is alot smoother and only about 1/2 as thick as the cottonwood cottonwood also has a very distinct smell and its not very pleasant ;D  here in west tn cottonwood loves water and is found on creek banks and river bottoms and alot of times it will start where the cypress stops.

[4x4American]

Good thread..furrows brad

[derhntr]

Michigan has a lot of cottonwood trees no mistaking it for aspen or poplar. Cottonwoods grow much larger in height and diameter than aspens

[killamplanes]

With are cottonwood it usually is found near water it has a lot of shake sometimes all the way up and even the limbs have shake.  when u stick a saw in it your instantly soaked. it holds a ton of water. My local blocking mill says they typically let it sit stacked up a couple months and when they cut it the lumber tends to not fall apart from the shake. But if u ever seen the size logs they have the shake is umbelievable. Logs over 50in they pay the logger nothing because they stand the log on end take a 5ft bar on a 880 and quarter the log down to go on the mill. It is a painfull thing to watch that's why they don't pay for them. I just let the tree stand when there that big. I cut a little around here for blocking and the nice thing about it is its usually found long and straight so u can cut 20ft things out of it. O ya a lot of time the lumber will turn green from mold when cut wet. And a few pallet guys will try to stick it in for 2x4 on the inside of the pallet on 2-way pallets. And a lot of Mat logs are made of cottonwood if shake  isn't to bad..

[WDH]

Cottonwood does not grow in the east. Here people just call aspen cottonwood.

Oh yes it does.  See the range map in the link.  Lots of it East of the Mississippi. 

http://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/dendrology/syllabus/factsheet.cfm?ID=64

[Gary_C]

I know that cottonwood is used for the side boards on dump trucks. The idea is that oak is less flexible and when the loader hits the oak when dumping, the oak will break. However the cottonwood is more flexible (tough) and will take a beating better than oak.

So oak is stronger but less flexible. Cottonwood is less strong but will bend more without breaking. Decay resistance there is no comparison, oak wins.

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

Cottonwood does not grow in the east. Here people just call aspen cottonwood.

Oh yes it does.  See the range map in the link.  Lots of it East of the Mississippi. 

http://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/dendrology/syllabus/factsheet.cfm?ID=64

I have 6 big 30 inch diameter Cottonwood logs in the yard now. My dad has 3 Cottonwood trees in his yard.
When they were seeding last week, you would have sworn in was snowing. 
I'm in the South East.

[5quarter]

Brad...That's Eastern cottonwood, or prairie redwood as my neighbor calls it. Yeah, they get Huge. Most of the barns and outbuildings around here were built with cottonwood. Most are still standing. Nowadays, it's used mostly by the pallet Cos.for pallets and for Dunnage, blocking and matting. For trailer decking, I'd saw it 6/4 and screw it down green. keep it away from standing water and it'll work fine.

[Hiway40frank]

Cottonwood does not grow in the east. Here people just call aspen cottonwood.

Oh yes it does.  See the range map in the link.  Lots of it East of the Mississippi. 

http://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/dendrology/syllabus/factsheet.cfm?ID=64

The eastern and western are different trees just like aspen and cottonwood are different. They are all in the poplar family.

[Dave989]

Very interesting discussion, sounds like I have to make darn sure it is cotton wood and it should be ok. I'm going to be using it for my dad's trailer that doesn't get used very often. Although he has a tendancy to leave crap stacked on the trailer covered in tarps so moisture is definitely a problem, hence the reason he needs new deck boards.

[Hiway40frank]

Just use oak, any poplar will rot fast if its wet. I would only use cottonwood if it was for a light trailer.