I’m remodeling my back lanai and will be building a bar-b-que bar with a tile top. What should I use to make the cabinets. This area will be under roof, but can get rain when it blows in from the West. The outside will be T-1-11 just like the rest of the house. My first inclination is marine grade ply, is there anything better?
Discussion Forum
Discussion Forum
Highlights
"I have learned so much thanks to the searchable articles on the FHB website. I can confidently say that I expect to be a life-long subscriber." - M.K.
Replies
Stainless steel?
exterior MDF called MEDEX
Welcome to the
Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime.
where ...
Excellence is its own reward!
I haven't seen Medex around, but one of the good yards should have or be able to get it. Our house here is not worth teak cabinets, and Koa is a protected wood. I have a table I made from some I got on the sly, now worth about $8K for the piece. I like the idea of the mahoganey face frames. Stainless Steel would glare too much into the house in the winter sun. The tile we picked has a dulled surface, kind of a sand like finish to reduce the glare from the sun.
Mahalo for the input guys.
Hoo
When I lived in Austin TX we did a lot of cabinets for outdoor settings.
Piffin mentioned Medex (outdoor MDF) but we also built some cabinets out of Teak, not very cheap but they offer you a wood finish if thats what your looking for.
Doug
What about making a top out of Koa? It should be readily available there. Beautiful wood in my opinion. With a few coats of exterior finish, it will be something good to look at as well as use. You'll have to glue up the panel, but it would be worth it.
ive used luan ply(underlayment) with mahogany porch flooring(t&g ripped off) for face frames and edging easy to work with and glows with cabot australian timber oil
I had a cabinet installed outside within a cutout in a wrought iron fence by a block post around my pool years ago. Right by where the wife would sunbath. I had the trim carp fashion up a moderately sized cabinet out of plastic lumber, SS screws and hinges. He did a good job, overlapping rabbets to keep things watertite - so much so, that the sparkey was able to run an outlet inside for a radio. It had several shelves.
But for your job, what Piffin says about SS. They make these all day long for your application.
My next door neighbor is a commercial kitchen manufacturer on the mainland, he said that SS would be too expensive for over here. "Shipping", no one makes SS here on the island. So, SS is out and some form of wood is in. Speaking like I did last night of rain on that portion of the house, we have a Kona storm going on right now and the sliders are wet up about 4' on the 8' deep lanai. Happens about once a year!
Medex or MDO plywood. The MDO is used for outdoor signs so is made to hold up to some direct moisture.
Beer was created so carpenters wouldn't rule the world.