Cedar

If a long-lasting, minimal maintenance deck or siding is what you are after, cedar remains the most popular and beautiful product on the market. What's more, the environmentally friendly nature of cedar cultivation means that your children will be able to enjoy a pristine environment long after you and your house are gone.

Dimensional Stability

Western Red Cedar has twice the stability of most commonly available softwoods. The stability is a result of its low density and shrinkage factors. It lies flat, stays straight, and holds fastenings tightly.

Workability

Western Red Cedar produces long, lightweight lengths of timber with a fine, straight grain and uniform texture that make it easy to cut, saw and nail with common tools. These features also contribute to its ability to be planed to a smooth surface or machined to any pattern. The lack of pitch and resin allows Western Red Cedar to hold glue bonds from a wide range of adhesives and provide a firm base for many types of paints and stains.

Natural Preservative

Western Red Cedar is one of the world's most durable woods. Natural resistance to moisture, decay and insect damage has long made Western Red Cedar the premier choice for either interior or exterior home use. Cedar fibers in the heartwood contain natural preservatives that are toxic to decay-causing fungi. The two principal extracts responsible for the resistance to decay are Thujaplicans and water-soluble phenolics. The tree's ability to produce these extracts increases with age, making the outer regions of heartwood the most durable. Given Kansas City's climate, when properly finished, cedar used for decking can be expected to last from 15 to 25 years or longer. Cedar siding, when properly maintained, will last 50 years or longer; when stained and when painted, this siding will last virtually forever, with many of the houses in the Kansas City area, built around the turn of the century, still having their original cedar siding.

All-Weather

Western Red Cedar is one of the few wood species that are naturally at home in the outdoors. Properly finished, Western Red Cedar will last for decades, even in harsh environments. Its natural resistance to moisture, decay and insect damage make it the ideal choice for a surface that is exposed to sun, rain, heat and cold year-round. With minimum maintenance, a truly beautiful and environmentally friendly cedar deck or cedar siding that will set your house apart from the rest of the neighborhood is very feasible.

Grades

Depending on your project, AC&R is able to offer many different grades of cedar for every individual project or budget.

CVG ( Clear Vertical Grain )

Clear vertical grain cedar is the highest quality cedar that is produced. All CVG is graded for a complete absence of knots or defects of any kind on all 4 sides and 4 edges; all CVG is also kiln dried. CVG is typically used in projects where stability and aesthetics are of the greatest priority such as interior trim, T&G, millwork and cabinet making, when only the highest quality material is desired.

Aye&Btr

Aye&Btr is ideally suited for interior and exterior uses where fine appearance is important. Aye&Btr is the ideal grade when finishing requirements may not be as stringent as CVG but appearance is still very important. Aye&Btr is graded to almost the exact same specifications as CVG except Aye&Btr allows for mixed and flat grain. All Aye&Btr is graded to all 4 sides and 4 edges to be almost entirely free of knots and defects. The grade does allow for 2 small tight knots or the equivalent and occasional very light skips on edges and back.

D&Btr

The lowest grade of clears is D&Btr. D&Btr is suited for projects where appearance is still a great concern or where millwork is involved. Many customers building furniture or smaller projects that involve cutting the material down find D&Btr a good choice, as they are able to work around the knots and defects. D&Btr is also a great choice when only one face of the board is going to be exposed or used. The main difference between Aye&Btr and D&Btr is that D&Btr is only graded to 1 face and 2 edges. This allows the back face and edges to have defects as long as there is 1 good face and 2 good edges. The other difference is that D&Btr allows more knots than Aye&Btr: D&Btr allows 1 2" knot in every 12' of 1x6 board or a similar combination.

2&Btr

This is the most commonly sold grade of Western Red Cedar and is suitable for most projects. 2&Btr is not considered a clear grade and is not graded for an absence of knots in any way. 2&Btr is graded for structural integrity and overall stability. 2&Btr is ideally suited for exterior purposes where an absence of knots is not desired. Western Red Cedar in 2&Btr has been the standard for exterior wood work for many years and, when properly maintained, will give your home the unique warmth of wood and last a lifetime. Within the 2&Btr grade there are many different sub grades that are all graded separately with different quality levels. One of the highest of these subgradings is Architectural Knotty; this is almost exclusively the grade that AC&R has always offered and will continue to offer. We believe this grade is the best compromise between the highest quality available and the most reasonable price.

STK (Select Tight Knot)

Select Tight Knot is another subcategory of 2&Btr. This grade is used almost exclusively for 2" and thinner material and sidings. The grading of a select tight knot is identical to that of the standard 2&Btr, except that all STK is hand-selected from 2&Btr for solid knots that are not going to fall out over time. The other difference in STK is that all of the STK material that American Cedar and Redwood offers is kiln dried, making it exceptionally stable and reliable (STK has also been marked as a D select at times).