"Fred" wrote in message
...
Hi,

I recently asked here about woods for a garden gate and you kindly
recommended larch or douglas fir. My local timber merchant only seems
to sell pine! I found a couple of other timber merchants via the
yellow pages. One never got back to me with prices; the other quoted
over two hundred pounds for Douglas fir for a 6'x3' gate. I almost
fainted, I think I'll go for the gate made of platinum instead! Surely
that's OTT?

I've been sent a catalogue from Build centre which lists both douglas
fir and larch but not prices. I hadn't thought of them as a timber
merchant before. Has anyone bought from them? Are they any good?

BTW I see that Wickes and B&Q now sell "professional grade redwood". I
wonder which company did it first and who is copying? Does this imply
that the other wood they sell - they say it's pine, I think it's
banana - is not fit for professional use

Has anyone bought any redwood from one of these "sheds" and was it any
good? Was the price any dearer than getting it from a merchant? I
think merchants are the only option for anything 2.4m long but when I
bought skirting and architrave recently, I am sure that Wickes was
about the same price as the merchant.

TIA

You could just buy ready-made. I've bought 2 pairs of gates from Cannock
Gates, good service and product:

http://www.cannockgates.co.uk/

Alan.