Western Red Cedar
Western red cedar is very popular within modern-day architecture, serving as a visually appealing and long-lasting element for homes and gardens.
Renowned for its rich and warm hues, western red cedar adds depth and intrigue to any structure, perfect for those who appreciate a more rustic aesthetic.
At B&F Specialist Timber, we provide western red cedar for exterior walls, roofing, and garden features, such as slatted fencing. When used for accent walls, this adds a beautiful focal point, adding charm to any building.
Our roof shingles are overlapped to provide a watertight shield, protecting your home from weather damage. For bathrooms, kitchens, and conservatories, our Kiln Dried Western Red Cedar is the perfect choice.
With excellent durability and resistance to rot and decay, these boards are a must-have for any project. You can choose from reddish tones to light browns, offering versatility and something for every preference.
Why Choose Western Red Cedar Timber?
When choosing a cladding material for your project, appearance and performance are of paramount importance. Western Red Cedar is precision made by nature, combining the unrivalled beauty of coastal grown Canadian timber with high durability, stability and resistance to decay for the ultimate natural cladding product.
Western Red Cedar is arguably the most popular material for traditional and contemporary building projects amongst architects and designers today, for both major commercial buildings and smaller domestic properties.
What are the differences between the Western Red Cedar grades?
- Cowichan Gold – The most exclusive Western Red Cedar is entirely knot-free, all-heartwood and all vertical grain making it the highest quality Western Red Cedar cladding and trim product available anywhere.
- Prestige Vertical Grain – Known as No. 2 Clear & Better, Vertical Grain heartwood, this wood is pre-graded at the sawmill, sized and graded in the planning facility, dried under strict controls, and then graded once again to ensure the highest quality grain appearance available.
- No. 2 Clear & Better - Known as No. 2 Clear & Better 85/15 offers a high-quality appearance at a lower price point than the Select Prestige VG and Cowichan Gold ranges. The grading of this product is less stringent, allowing more imperfections that can be trimmed out during installation. This product is particularly aimed at contractors for larger-scale projects where trimming and wastage are expected.
- Cascadia – A superior live knotted kiln-dried timber product, also known as ‘select tight knot’.
Do I need to protect Western Red Cedar?
The Western Red Cedar Lumber Association state that “Although cedar is a naturally durable species, leaving it uncoated is not recommended because a finish or protective coating will greatly increase its service life” and “Western Red Cedar performs best when supplied factory finished on all six sides”.
Factory coating service
Western Red Cedar cladding from B&F can be supplied factory coated enabling it to be installed at any time of year regardless of the weather or temperature.
Is Western Red Cedar timber sustainably sourced?
For environmentally friendly building materials, wood is a clear leader. It is legally, responsibly and sustainably harvested in the publicly managed forests of British Columbia, Canada. Less than 1% of standing timber is harvested each year. For each tree harvested, three are replanted to ensure the forests will exist in perpetuity.
Why choose Us?
We stock a wide range of western red cedar cladding from the world’s leading timber processing companies. Wood has been carefully selected to ensure that it meets the highest standards of quality at the most competitive prices.
- Kiln-dried: Our l-shaped corner trim is kiln-dried, resulting in improved dimensional stability with the ability to apply a finish immediately and the opportunity to install with minimal site acclimatisation.
- Grading: Produced from the highest specification Western Red Cedar available. The wood fibre is fine-grained, coastal grown, virtually knot free No. 2 Clear & Better grade (No. 4 Clear not permitted). It is specially selected to ensure every piece is vertical grain*, and every piece is heartwood, making it an excellent wood cladding material, in terms of both appearance and performance. Read more about grading and quality here.
- Sourcing/certification: Western Red Cedar l-shaped corner trim is sourced from the most sustainably managed forests in the world in British Columbia, Canada, and comes with PEFC certification.
The wood fibre used to produce Western Red Cedar Posts is from second-growth logs harvested in coastal forests of British Columbia, Canada. They are produced from superior kiln-dried live knotted Western Red Cedar. They are planed with eased edges.
Western Red Cedar posts can be used to build slatted screen fences, board fences, decks, pergolas, gazebos, etc.
Sourcing/certification: Western Red Cedar is sourced from the most sustainably managed forests in the world in British Columbia, Canada, and comes with full PEFC certification.
Optional Extras
Coatings: The application of a coating is necessary to protect the wood and optimise its appearance over time. The coating should be applied to all surfaces, including ends, before installation. Choose from our wide range of high-performance wood coating systems.
- Boards
- STK - Select Tight Knot
- STK - Select Tight Knot
- Tongue & Groove
- STK - Select Tight Knot
Western Red Cedar FAQs
Western red cedar is a softwood that is sourced from second-growth logs sustainably grown and managed in coastal forests in British Columbia, Canada.
B&F’s boards and trims are cut from fine-grained heartwood, which gives that mix of light straw through to rich reddish-brown tones you see across our range of cladding, battens and corner trims.
Plus, our cedar is virtually knot-free- offering a smooth, unblemished appearance for decorative touches. Each piece is vertical grain*, and all of our western red cedar is fully PEFC-certified.
Western red cedar is much lighter than many hardwoods, pleasantly aromatic, and naturally resin-free, making it easy to install and a perfect choice for projects where appearance and atmosphere matter.
That’s why it’s typically used for garden decking and patios for restaurants, cafes, and hotels. It’s also used extensively for roofing and weather protection in the form of western red cedar shingles and hip and ridge caps that overlap to form a watertight covering.
Western red cedar posts and battens are also used for slatted fencing, screens, pergolas, gazebos, and deck framing.
Since western red cedar is kiln-dried and is naturally durable, it already offers excellent performance and a beautiful finish.
However, we suggest adding a coating, as leaving it uncoated will decrease its life. For this, apply a suitable high-performance exterior wood coating to the entire surface, including the back and especially the cut ends, before installation.
Go for a UV-resistant stain if you want to maintain its natural colour for as long as possible. We also recommend using stainless steel trim-head screws to avoid black stains and corrosion marks.
Yes! It’s classed as a durability class 2 (durable) timber and, when properly finished and maintained, it can last for decades.
In fact, it’s very dimensionally stable, making it an excellent choice for load-bearing installations. Due to its low density and ability to resist shrinking, it moves far less than many other species when there’s a shift in temperature, so boards stay flatter, and joints stay tighter over time.
Its natural resistance to decay makes it an excellent choice for a long-term deck, and the warm brown brings a cosy feel. Plus, it has a comfortable underfoot feel and has a relatively splinter-free surface that’s kinder to bare feet and small children.
Western red cedar can last anywhere from 30 to 60 years, depending on the quality of the timber and how well it’s installed and cared for.
To make them last longer, keep them off the ground and away from standing water and apply a suitable coating to the surface.
When installing timber battens, you want to do the following:
- Build a backing structure: Fix your cedar battens to treated softwood rails or posts, using suitable backing.
- Pre-coat the battens: Apply your chosen coating to all faces of the battens before installing them.
- Secure them in place: When securing the structure or boards in place, use stainless steel fixings. These will stay in great condition through cold and rainy UK conditions. Aim to fix each wider batten with two screws or nails at each support point to keep them flat.
- Pre-drill near the ends and edges: To avoid splits, especially near the ends of narrow battens, pre-drill fixing holes and keep fixings in from the edges rather than right on the corner.
- Leave consistent gaps and keep them off the ground: When installing slatted fences or screens, leave a consistent gap between the battens and keep them elevated off the ground.
When adding cedar timber battens to a block wall, treat it in the same way you would a cedar cladding job: solid structure first, then treated backing battens, then your cedar on top.
- Prepare the wall: Choose a structurally sound, clear wall and add a breathable or façade-grade membrane over the blockwork for rainscreen cladding. You can skip the membrane for internal walls. Just make sure the brick is dry and dust-free.
- Fix treated backing battens to the blockwork: Fix the battens to treated softwood backing battens, not directly to the masonry, for ventilation. Use pressure-treated battens and install them around 400–600 mm apart (depending on load and batten size). You can fix them to the wall with masonry anchors, frame fixings, or stainless/construction screws into plugs.
- Pre-treat and pre-drill cedar battens: Apply a protective coating to all surfaces, then cut the ends. Then, pre-drill near the ends to avoid splitting, especially on narrow sections.
- Fix the cedar battens to the backing: Use stainless steel screws to secure the battens in place. Use two fixings at each backing batten, roughly 25% in from each edge, and at least 20 mm from ends. Make sure the battens don’t touch the ground.
