Wood selection for casings and baseboards?

Question

I have the problem of selecting wood for making casings and baseboards and other architectural trim. In my situation cost is not an objective.

The millworkers I currently use prefer sapele. The problem with sapele is that it is dark, oily and has a relatively deep grain, so that makes it difficult to paint (most of my trim is painted white). So, what happens is that the primer tends to soak into the sapele, then it has to be re-sanded and primed again, repeat over and over. Also, a lot of coats are necessary to cover the naturally dark shade of the wood.

One obvious improvement would be genuine mahogany which is lighter in color, less porous and less oily. The main drawback is that it is more difficult to obtain genuine mahogany and so lead times might be longer.

Naively, I have suggested maple which is light in color, hard, has a tight, easily painted grain. However, the millworkers say it is unusable for casings because it tends to twist. If this is true, one creative workaround might be to use a maple butcher block which will not twist, but how well butcher block mills, I don't know.

I am interested in other suggestions.

Update:

One wood I am looking at is sweet birch. It is pretty hard stuff and looks close grained from the photo. How is it for stability? Does it tend to twist like maple does?

Answer 1

Poplar seems to be the preferred wood for painting. It's got a nice, tight grain that sands nicely, takes paint well and leaves a smooth surface.

It has the additional advantage of being cheap. While you may be willing to spend more, there's no point in doing so for a "fancy" wood if you're going to slop apply paint over it. Nobody will ever know if there's "plain" poplar or "snazzy" genuine mahogany underneath a coat of white paint. Take the difference in cost of the wood and apply it to a higher quality of paint if you feel the need to burn some cash.

If you're going to stain, then by all means get something nice and leave the poplar behind. Poplar's got some weird coloration in it (at least the poplar I've seen) that probably wouldn't look nice under stain.

Answer 2

The best material for painted trim is not wood at all. You should be using MDF, or, if you're worried about denting, PVC.

These man made materials surpass wood for this application in almost every way other than not having open grain if that look is desired. But since you're mentioning using maple and that you don't want the deep grain of sapele this should be perfect.

Answer 3

Oak. Usually so-called white oak. But red oak will also do.

This is the traditional wood used for this purpose. Even the sapwood is hard enough in most cases.

Like most hardwood, it can be rather expensive, but you can get lower graded lengths if you shop around. It cuts well, works well, sands well, seals well, takes paint well, and is very stable. It is very hard for its mass.

And since you are priming and painting, you can choose very durable modern paints that, when applied with care, offer a lot of scuff and dent protection.

Maple, in my opinion, would be overkill. It would also be really expensive, and it's harder to find cheaper grades for this sort of use.

Also, look around online and see if someone is disposing of old baseboards or other boards you can repurpose. Heck, you could look around for some partially engineering product, where they take cheaper pieces of softer hardwood and combine them into nominal sizes for this exact sort of application.