Plywood outdoors

On Dec 7, 11:06 am, [email protected] wrote:
> SWMBO wants birdhouses. I have a few sheets of birch plywood, but not
> outdoor plywood.

It's a birdhouse. Paint the rooftop if you want, otherwise let
it turn to a ruin naturally; the glue will weaken, fungus will attack
the wood and glue, and that's OK. Birds like to nest in worse wood
than anything you can find in your scrap bin, after all.

How much structural strength does it take to support a nest and
some tweety-birds? The worst that can happen, is the
project needs redoing in a few decades. Prepare your offspring to
do that work!

Fri, Dec 7, 2007, 11:06am (EST-3) [email protected] dot has received
his orders:
SWMBO wants birdhouses. I have a few sheets of birch plywood, but not
outdoor plywood. If I am going to cover the whole d*mn birdhouse (inside
and outside) in exterior paint, should i care if the plywood is not
rated for outdoors? Won't the paint encase the plywood, keeping any
moisture from swelling and delaminating the boards?

I've read you shouldn't paint the inside. The balld iggle on the
front of my corporate world headquarters is interior birch ply. It's
painted with exterior latex, and is as good as new. It's been up for
somewhere around 10 years or so.

I don't have a link to a picture of the iggle just now, so here's
one to my Tiki instead.
http://community-2.webtv.net/Jakofalltrades/BALDIGGLE/



JOAT
Even Popeye didn't eat his spinach until he had to.

On Dec 7, 2:06 pm, [email protected] wrote:

I use a "stain" made of fuel oil and roofing shingles and really soak
the bird house in it - several "coats."

If your houses are small enough, dunk them like a new car at the paint
factory.

Then, if you have some clear laying about in a gun somwhere, feel free
to shoot 'em with that

But, with regular wood I use, it appears I achieve a waterproof finish
similar to a rail road tie.

And, the color is nice and rustic.

The birds just adore teh feeder made this way and we are looking for
or second or third family to take advantage of the nesting box/bird
"house" I built..

"Nova" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:eak6j.85$sf.32@trndny04...
>J T wrote:
>> Fri, Dec 7, 2007, 11:06am (EST-3) [email protected] dot has received
>> his orders:
>> SWMBO wants birdhouses. I have a few sheets of birch plywood, but not
>> outdoor plywood. If I am going to cover the whole d*mn birdhouse (inside
>> and outside) in exterior paint, should i care if the plywood is not
>> rated for outdoors? Won't the paint encase the plywood, keeping any
>> moisture from swelling and delaminating the boards? I've read you
>> shouldn't paint the inside. The balld iggle on the
>> front of my corporate world headquarters is interior birch ply. It's
>> painted with exterior latex, and is as good as new. It's been up for
>> somewhere around 10 years or so.
>>
>
> I've also read you shouldn't paint the outside:
>
> "6. Paint: Try not to buy brightly painted birdhouses, but keep them
> natural colors or unpainted. Unpainted is preferable. Birds hide their
> nests and brightly colored birdhouses will only attract predators.
> Decorative birdhouses are very pretty, but you can get pretty and
> practical birdhouses which will keep the nestling safe."
>
> http://www.squidoo.com/bird-houses
>
> --
> Jack Novak
> Buffalo, NY - USA
> [email protected]

Couple of years ago I built some bird houses out of used highway sign
boards, the stuff that is coated with BRIGHT ORANGE reflective plastic.
Put them up on fence posts in an open area (no tree for over 75 ft). By the
time I got back to the house and turned around to look at them a blue bird
was already moving in, and by the end of the day all three of them were
occupied. You can see these things for a half mile in the daytime and a
couple of miles at night when a light hits them. No body has told the birds
around here that they don't like brightly colored houses.

<[email protected]> wrote

> SWMBO wants birdhouses. I have a few sheets of birch plywood, but not
> outdoor plywood. If I am going to cover the whole d*mn birdhouse
> (inside and outside) in exterior paint, should i care if the plywood
> is not rated for outdoors? Won't the paint encase the plywood, keeping
> any moisture from swelling and delaminating the boards?

Caulk any joins, etc, and, while it won't last forever, it may last longer
than you would expect, depending upon what you use to "paint" it with, and
whether you can keep moisture from seeping into corners, etc.

Funny you should mention that.

I have a piece of cheap throwaway 3/4" interior plywood that I use as an
outdoor assembly/paint/stain table top, right out the shop door. I
shellacked the hell out of it just for grins the first week it was outside
about two years ago, just to empty the spray gun ... and I occasionally
spray it with left over shellac, polyurethane, whatever I'm using, for the
same reason.

Looking at it closely the other day (and thinking maybe it was time to
change it out), I was sorta amazed at how well it has weathered the past
couple of years in the open ... despite the heat cold, rain and sun, it's
flatter and straighter than some of the plywood stored in the shop:

http://www.e-woodshop.net/files/cheap.jpg

... go figure.

Despite all that, if I was going to spend any of my time on an outdoor
project, I would invest in some exterior or marine grade plywood and then
use a good exterior topcoat ... it isn't all that much in the scheme of
things.

Then again, if you're a cheapskate, like JOAT, use what you got, paint'em
yellow, and hope for the best, like the above. :)

--
www.e-woodshop.net
Last update: 11/30/07
KarlC@ (the obvious)

On Sat, 8 Dec 2007 10:05:42 -0800 (PST), whit3rd <[email protected]>
wrote:

>On Dec 7, 11:06 am, [email protected] wrote:
>> SWMBO wants birdhouses. I have a few sheets of birch plywood, but not
>> outdoor plywood.
>
>It's a birdhouse. Paint the rooftop if you want, otherwise let
>it turn to a ruin naturally; the glue will weaken, fungus will attack
>the wood and glue, and that's OK. Birds like to nest in worse wood
>than anything you can find in your scrap bin, after all.
>
>How much structural strength does it take to support a nest and
>some tweety-birds? The worst that can happen, is the
>project needs redoing in a few decades. Prepare your offspring to
>do that work!


I built several new birdhouses last winter. The birds clearly
preferred the 10-year weathered houses to the new ones.

On Sun, 09 Dec 2007 00:29:09 GMT, Nova <[email protected]> wrote:

>Birds primarily rely on sight and hearing. Although there are
>exceptions (turkey vultures, kiwis...) the sense of smell in most birds
>is not very developed. Human scent most likely would not come into play.


Do they have a natural aversion to things that are "new" in the
environment?

Maybe that's it.

If your making it for the birds to live in and not as a decoration
then the plywood should last a few seasons - I just cut up 12 of them
for a cub scout den out of pine boards. I figure after a few years,
even with cleaning them out every season, they get nasty enough that I
through em in the fire pit.

If they are going to be near your outdoor living space, and used
decoratively, I would use cedar.

Rich



On Dec 7, 5:05 pm, "Jim" <[email protected]> wrote:
> "J. Clarke" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>
> news:[email protected]...
>
> > [email protected] wrote:
> >> SWMBO wants birdhouses. I have a few sheets of birch plywood, but
> >> not
> >> outdoor plywood. If I am going to cover the whole d*mn birdhouse
> >> (inside and outside) in exterior paint, should i care if the plywood
> >> is not rated for outdoors? Won't the paint encase the plywood,
> >> keeping
> >> any moisture from swelling and delaminating the boards?
>
> > The quick answer is "for a while".
>
> > There's a reason that houses don't have painted plywood roofs.
>
> > If you put a good overhang on it and a waterproof roof (cover it with
> > overlapped strips of duct tape if you don't have anything else) then
> > it should be OK for a while. But if you want to do a right job of it
> > pick up some cedar or redwood or ipe or whatever your local yard sells
> > for non-pressure-treated deck lumber and it should be OK for a long,
> > long time.
>
> > --
> > --
> > --John
> > to email, dial "usenet" and validate
> > (was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)
>
> Choices:
> 1. Exterior grade will last a while. The weakness is said to lie with the
> choice of wood.
> 2. Marine grade will last a long time if you maintain it properly. It has
> glue that is really waterproof and better wood than exterior.
>
> Anything other kind of plywood is only good for practice.
>
> Jim

J T wrote:
> Fri, Dec 7, 2007, 11:06am (EST-3) [email protected] dot has received
> his orders:
> SWMBO wants birdhouses. I have a few sheets of birch plywood, but not
> outdoor plywood. If I am going to cover the whole d*mn birdhouse (inside
> and outside) in exterior paint, should i care if the plywood is not
> rated for outdoors? Won't the paint encase the plywood, keeping any
> moisture from swelling and delaminating the boards?
>
> I've read you shouldn't paint the inside. The balld iggle on the
> front of my corporate world headquarters is interior birch ply. It's
> painted with exterior latex, and is as good as new. It's been up for
> somewhere around 10 years or so.
>

I've also read you shouldn't paint the outside:

"6. Paint: Try not to buy brightly painted birdhouses, but keep them
natural colors or unpainted. Unpainted is preferable. Birds hide their
nests and brightly colored birdhouses will only attract predators.
Decorative birdhouses are very pretty, but you can get pretty and
practical birdhouses which will keep the nestling safe."

http://www.squidoo.com/bird-houses

--
Jack Novak
Buffalo, NY - USA
[email protected]

On Sat, 08 Dec 2007 20:23:03 GMT, Phisherman <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>I built several new birdhouses last winter. The birds clearly
>preferred the 10-year weathered houses to the new ones.


I've seen the same in my back yard. I think the birds need the human
smell to weather away.

On Fri, 7 Dec 2007 18:22:56 -0600, "Curran Copeland"
<[email protected]> wrote:
>You can see these things for a half mile in the daytime and a
>couple of miles at night when a light hits them. No body has told the birds
>around here that they don't like brightly colored houses.

He didn't say the _birds_ didn't like them.

He said _predators_ really like brightly colored birdhouses.

Think about that for a moment.

[email protected] wrote:
> SWMBO wants birdhouses. I have a few sheets of birch plywood, but
> not
> outdoor plywood. If I am going to cover the whole d*mn birdhouse
> (inside and outside) in exterior paint, should i care if the plywood
> is not rated for outdoors? Won't the paint encase the plywood,
> keeping
> any moisture from swelling and delaminating the boards?

The quick answer is "for a while".

There's a reason that houses don't have painted plywood roofs.

If you put a good overhang on it and a waterproof roof (cover it with
overlapped strips of duct tape if you don't have anything else) then
it should be OK for a while. But if you want to do a right job of it
pick up some cedar or redwood or ipe or whatever your local yard sells
for non-pressure-treated deck lumber and it should be OK for a long,
long time.

--
--
--John
to email, dial "usenet" and validate
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)

Phisherman wrote:
> On Fri, 7 Dec 2007 11:06:43 -0800 (PST), [email protected] wrote:
>
>> SWMBO wants birdhouses. I have a few sheets of birch plywood, but not
>> outdoor plywood. If I am going to cover the whole d*mn birdhouse
>> (inside and outside) in exterior paint, should i care if the plywood
>> is not rated for outdoors? Won't the paint encase the plywood, keeping
>> any moisture from swelling and delaminating the boards?
>>
>> Greg
>
>
> I have a birdhouse that is still being used. I made it over 20 years
> ago from scraps of (interior) ply. I think the shingle on top (and
> paint) made it last. Do not paint the interior. Exterior wood is not
> needed with a finish. Use scrap and leftover materials.

I have a birdfeeder that's supposed to
emulate a square log built house. The
logs are 1" x 1" cedar, as is most of
the rest of the structure. The roof
however, is ply. I didn't build it but
I'm assuming it's interior ply. I've
painted it with exterior semi, and it's
lasted (so far) about 5 years in some
pretty harsh conditions.

If the ply gives out, tho, I'll remove
it and replace with some left over tin
from my house roof.

--
Tanus

This is not really a sig.

http://www.home.mycybernet.net/~waugh/shop/

Phisherman wrote:
> On Sat, 8 Dec 2007 10:05:42 -0800 (PST), whit3rd <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>
>> On Dec 7, 11:06 am, [email protected] wrote:
>>> SWMBO wants birdhouses. I have a few sheets of birch plywood, but
>>> not outdoor plywood.
>>
>> It's a birdhouse. Paint the rooftop if you want, otherwise let
>> it turn to a ruin naturally; the glue will weaken, fungus will
>> attack
>> the wood and glue, and that's OK. Birds like to nest in worse wood
>> than anything you can find in your scrap bin, after all.
>>
>> How much structural strength does it take to support a nest and
>> some tweety-birds? The worst that can happen, is the
>> project needs redoing in a few decades. Prepare your offspring to
>> do that work!
>
>
> I built several new birdhouses last winter. The birds clearly
> preferred the 10-year weathered houses to the new ones.

Probably less human smell about them.

--
--
--John
to email, dial "usenet" and validate
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)

Bonehenge (B A R R Y) wrote:

> On Sat, 08 Dec 2007 20:23:03 GMT, Phisherman <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>>I built several new birdhouses last winter. The birds clearly
>>preferred the 10-year weathered houses to the new ones.
>
>
>
> I've seen the same in my back yard. I think the birds need the human
> smell to weather away.
>

Birds primarily rely on sight and hearing. Although there are
exceptions (turkey vultures, kiwis...) the sense of smell in most birds
is not very developed. Human scent most likely would not come into play.

--
Jack Novak
Buffalo, NY - USA
[email protected]

<[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> SWMBO wants birdhouses. I have a few sheets of birch plywood, but not
> outdoor plywood. If I am going to cover the whole d*mn birdhouse
> (inside and outside) in exterior paint, should i care if the plywood
> is not rated for outdoors? Won't the paint encase the plywood, keeping
> any moisture from swelling and delaminating the boards?
>
> Greg

Why not make them out of pine or spruce or some other cheap wood? The birds
won't care.

"J. Clarke" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> [email protected] wrote:
>> SWMBO wants birdhouses. I have a few sheets of birch plywood, but
>> not
>> outdoor plywood. If I am going to cover the whole d*mn birdhouse
>> (inside and outside) in exterior paint, should i care if the plywood
>> is not rated for outdoors? Won't the paint encase the plywood,
>> keeping
>> any moisture from swelling and delaminating the boards?
>
> The quick answer is "for a while".
>
> There's a reason that houses don't have painted plywood roofs.
>
> If you put a good overhang on it and a waterproof roof (cover it with
> overlapped strips of duct tape if you don't have anything else) then
> it should be OK for a while. But if you want to do a right job of it
> pick up some cedar or redwood or ipe or whatever your local yard sells
> for non-pressure-treated deck lumber and it should be OK for a long,
> long time.
>
> --
> --
> --John
> to email, dial "usenet" and validate
> (was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)
>
>
Choices:
1. Exterior grade will last a while. The weakness is said to lie with the
choice of wood.
2. Marine grade will last a long time if you maintain it properly. It has
glue that is really waterproof and better wood than exterior.

Anything other kind of plywood is only good for practice.

Jim

On Fri, 7 Dec 2007 11:06:43 -0800 (PST), [email protected] wrote:

>SWMBO wants birdhouses. I have a few sheets of birch plywood, but not
>outdoor plywood. If I am going to cover the whole d*mn birdhouse
>(inside and outside) in exterior paint, should i care if the plywood
>is not rated for outdoors? Won't the paint encase the plywood, keeping
>any moisture from swelling and delaminating the boards?
>
>Greg


I have a birdhouse that is still being used. I made it over 20 years
ago from scraps of (interior) ply. I think the shingle on top (and
paint) made it last. Do not paint the interior. Exterior wood is not
needed with a finish. Use scrap and leftover materials.

On Fri, 07 Dec 2007 22:54:02 GMT, Nova <[email protected]> wrote:

>"6. Paint: Try not to buy brightly painted birdhouses, but keep them
>natural colors or unpainted. Unpainted is preferable. Birds hide their
>nests and brightly colored birdhouses will only attract predators.

Apparently, predators are attracted to brightly colored buildings to
eat.

Hey!

McDonald's, Howard Johnson's, Taco Bell, Waffle House... They're all
brightly colored! Weird... <G>