Many are surprised to learn that pine wood is a popular pick for furniture makers and carpenters for its affordability and attractive grain. But is pine wood strong enough?
Despite being that pine is a softwood, our wood expert will shed light on its hidden sturdiness, which makes it perfect for creating gorgeous and long-lasting woodwork and furniture.
Pine Wood Strength Overview
Pine is a softwood that can outperform others. So, let’s delve into the key factors that make soft pine wood strong.
The several varieties of pine wood are as follows:
- Longleaf Pine Wood
- Shortleaf Pine Wood
- Table Mountain Pine Wood
- Sand Pine Trees
- Slash Pine Wood
- Loblolly Pine Wood
Properties | Eastern/Western White Pine Wood | Yellow Pine Wood |
Compressive strength | 4800psi | 8470psi |
Hardness | 380lb | 870lb |
Density | 0.35 | 0.59 |
Bending strength | 8600psi | 14500psi |
Stiffness | 1.24Mpsi | 1.98Mpsi |
Yellow pine wood outshines western or eastern white pine in density, hardness, stiffness, and more, even rivaling many hardwoods.
Though yellow pine wood is lighter and easier to work with than other woods, remember that there may be hardwood alternatives with even greater strength.
What is Pine Lumber Best Used For?
When pressure-treated, pine wood can be a great choice for outdoor decking since forests naturally don’t have high levels of resistance to insects or deterioration. But how you can treat pine wood for outdoor use? Find out next!
Pressure-treating increases its durability, fire resistance, and resistance to rot, fungi, and insects. Making pine wood strong.
It is also a great option inside the house for baseboards, door frames, window trim, picture frames, and chair rails since it’s lightweight and easy to work with.
Is it Good for Making Furniture?
Pine wood is often used for furniture due to its strength, despite being a softwood with low density.
Although pine is a softwood, the compressive and bending strength is higher than some hardwoods. This is what makes pine a strong wood, making it a durable material for both interior and exterior furnishings.
It can be easily manipulated with saws, lathes, or routers but needs to be done slowly to prevent it from tearing.
It is important to sharpen your tools beforehand, and sanding should always be done with fine-grit sandpaper (80 – 400). To finish the pine wood furniture properly, use staining.
What Is the Strongest Wood for Furniture?
Oak is the strongest and best wood for furniture making, while pine wood is one of the most durable lumber options for furniture. Oak is commonly used for top-end pieces of furniture and can last centuries but is typically quite pricey.
Meanwhile, pine wood is a more affordable and right wood option; however, it may get scratched often.
Pine wood works great for day-to-day furniture making and projects, but Oak owns this category as the best wood when it comes to strength and longevity.
Is Pine Good for Stairs?
Pine is a great choice for stairs as it’s easy to work with, sand, and finish. It’s also stronger than most wood and won’t decay. One drawback of pine stairs is that they can be damaged easily and are not as strong wood or durable as most hardwoods.
If you have pets with claws, we wouldn’t recommend pine staircases as they could easily be scratched.
Between yellow and white pine, yellow is denser and more robust, so most people opt for it. Pinewood takes well to paint and stain too.
How About Shelves?
Pinewood may not be strong enough to use for shelves; it can sag under excessive weight ratio, dent, and scratch easily.
Therefore, while we can use it on certain occasions, harder woods such as cherry, birch, and maple are better suited for shelf-making due to their bending strengths and durability.
Plus, when using pine wood for shelves, you may need additional support for extended spans and regular upkeep, which requires both time and money. If you want the look of pine wood without the drawbacks, it’s best to opt for a stain.
Is Pine Strong for a Bed Frame?
If you’re thinking if pine wood is strong for bed frames—yes, it’s a great choice for bed frames. It’s versatile, affordable, sturdy, with dimensional stability, and easy to paint, so you can’t go wrong. Plus, it offers good moisture resistance and is resistant to decay and rotting.
The downside of a bed frame made out of softwood than hardwood is that it can be easily scratched and dented if not taken care of properly. Be sure to examine the length of the planks as well since longer pieces won’t be able to support the heavyweights of the bed frame.
Nonetheless, pine wood is strong enough to hold two full-grown people, two mattresses, pillows, and blankets over time, thanks to its superior dimensional stability of the bed frame.
Even if you’re a beginner in woodworking for a bed frame, you won’t have any trouble with drilling, sanding, or screwing because of pinewood’s ease.
Is it Ideal for Dining Tables?
Pine wood is an excellent choice for a dining table due to its strength and durability; it is especially resistant to shrinkage, making it a common choice for dining tables.
Unfortunately, many people focus on luxurious materials instead of taking into account that good old pine wood would do the job just fine.
That being said, you can use pine wood for the tabletop of your dining table and opt for metal legs for added longevity. But if you want a full pine wood table, you’ll be happy to know that is also an option!
What’s the Strongest Pine Wood? And How Is it Compared to Other Wood?
This medium-high strength wood, but one of the strongest softwoods, is perfect for crafting sturdy furniture like bed frames and chairs.
However, be mindful of its soft grain structure or being a softwood, as it is prone to scratches making it unsuitable for decorative items. Here are some common woods and their ratings.
Various Wood Types | Janka Hardness (higher to lower) | Tensile Strength of Other Woods |
White Oak Tree | 1,360 lbf | 770 psi |
Red Oak | 1,290 lbf | 798 psi |
Paper Birch | 910 lbf | 380 psi |
Longleaf pine | 870 lbf | 290 psi |
Shortleaf Pine | 690 lbf | 280 psi |
Poplar | 540 lbf | 460 psi |
White Cedar | 350 lbf | 218 psi |
Pine vs Plywood
Generally, plywood is viewed as weaker than solid woods. However, some types of plywood are stronger than pine. For instance, pine plywood can bear a greater bending force than solid pine wood before breaking.
Two factors contribute to making any plywood stronger than pine: the number of layers and the type of adhesives used to bond them. If these two elements are combined properly, then plywood can easily surpass the strength of solid pine.
Pine vs Poplar
When it comes to strength, poplar wood is slightly stronger than pine, but yellow pine is the strongest of the two compared. White pine, on the other hand, is much weaker.
The Janka Hardness values give us an indication of their respective strengths. Poplar is 540 lb while Yellow Pine is at 870 lb, and White Pine comes in at 380 lb
Pine vs Cedar
Though often considered softwood, cedar wood is much stronger and more durable than pine wood. It’s also resistant to warping and shrinking. When looking at Janka hardness values, pine wood is much harder than cedar.
Red cedar is 350 lb, while Cedar is 320 lb., Yellow pine shows 870 lb, and White pine shows 380 lb. To get a similar durability as cedar, many people choose to use pine wood as an alternative.
Pine vs Oak Wood
Although Pine and Oak are comparable in terms of strength, durability, and longevity, Pine is usually more affordable than Oak. So, if your project’s selling price can’t justify the cost of oak lumber, pine wood is strong enough and likely the right wood option for you.
Pinewood Pros and Cons
Pinewood certainly has its advantages, but it’s not the only material used for making wood products. It’s not always the number one choice either; certain limitations make it less than ideal in some scenarios.
Pinewood Pros
Let’s examine all the beneficial aspects of pinewood to have an unbiased opinion about it since there are many misunderstandings regarding this type of lumber. Here are some of the advantages of pine wood properties without any myths attached to this softwood:
It Doesn’t Warp
Natural wood may not warp as much as vinyl or laminate, but it can still shrink or expand depending on temperature and humidity.
Pinewood, however, remains relatively stable even under normal circumstances, so you won’t notice any warping. That’s because Pinewood doesn’t shrink as much compared to other materials in the same conditions. Here’s a table showing this:
Type of Wood | Tangential Shrinkage |
White Oak | 10.5% |
Red Oak | 12% |
Paper Birch | 8.6% |
Longleaf pine Woods | 7.5% |
Shortleaf Pine Woods | 7.7% |
Poplar | 7.1% |
Cedar | 4.9% |
Easier to Work With
Finishing a project with oak is highly rewarding, but I don’t miss the amount of time it takes to craft the item. Working with hardwood can be difficult. Pinewood, however, is lightweight, has bending strength, and can be conveniently moved to other places.
This makes building projects effortless and transportation very manageable. Additionally, pinewood doesn’t fight against your tools and is much lighter than other types of wood.
It’s also easier on your tools too! In terms of density, here’s how pinewood compares to other types of wood.
Type of Wood | Density Rating |
White Oak | 37 – 56 lb/ft3 |
Red Oak | 45 lb/ft3 |
Paper Birch | 38.6 lb/ft3 |
Longleaf pine | 29 lb/ft3 |
Shortleaf Pine | 35.6 lb/ft3 |
Poplar | 22 – 31 lb/ft3 |
White Cedar | 23 lb/ft3 |
Durable
It shouldn’t be underestimated how lightweight pinewood is; this type of lumber is tough enough for both hardwood and softwood applications. Additionally, in certain cases, stair treads made of pine are quite suitable, which makes pine stronger.
Not Expensive
The affordability of pinewood is often a deciding factor when it comes to choosing wood for projects. Typically, projects with tight budgets require wood that is equally strong yet cheaper than other materials, and pine fits the bill!
Here are some easy-on-the-wallet DIY pinewood projects you can make from home:
- Footrest
- Pen holder
- Cutting board
- Woodblock for knives
- Hand tool organizer
Decent Moisture Resistance
When it comes to moisture absorption, pine is the ideal choice for certain outdoor areas or places with higher humidity [1]. Even though it can be scratched from impact, pinewood won’t easily rot if exposed to moisture. However, it’s best to finish the surfaces as an added precaution.
Pleasant Grain
Pinewood’s grain is attractive, and it’s pleasant to the touch, making it an advantage, especially when the thing is a help or easy to reach.
Pinewood Cons
All types of lumber have their limitations, and this is true for pinewood as well. Below are the cons of pine wood properties.
Prone to Dents
Using pinewood regularly can lead to scratches on its surface. It’s hard to dent it and damage its core with usual use, but it’s surprisingly easy to put dents on its wood because of its low density.
Requires More Paint
Paint doesn’t adhere well to pine, so you’ll need more of it to cover the wood. If money is your priority, then pine shouldn’t be your go-to option if painting is necessary for the project.
Requires Sanding
Pinewood needs light sanding before it can be shipped. Sand the wood by hand to bring down the grain, which can be quite prominent.
However, in rare cases, due to extra sanding, this may end up taking longer than when working with hardwoods – though pinewood is usually quicker to work with, even when you factor in the extra sanding.
Not as Durable as Hardwoods
Pine is an interesting material, as it is regarded as a hardwood sometimes due to its superior hardness when compared to most softwoods. Still, in regards to most other areas, it rarely measures up to the harder species and usually only comes out on top in terms of price.
Is Pine Water-Resistant?
Pine is somewhat water-resistant, but it won’t be able to withstand constant spills and rainfall. To combat these conditions, the wood must be treated with a waterproof finish to make the pine stronger.
The problem with using a highly waterproof sealant is that it can change the grain of the pinewood, which is often a desirable feature.
Therefore, when selecting a finish, you should opt for something waterproof yet still preserves the grain of the wood. Some examples of water-resistant finishes are polyurethane, varnish, and lacquer.
Conclusion
So, is pine wood strong? For a typical woodworker, pine wood is certainly stronger, yet not as strong wood as you’d like. Raw pine wood is even stronger than furniture-grade oak. The pine wood typically found in stores is shortleaf, though, and not as robust as most hardwoods.
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