Porta stocks a range of products made from Australian and other exotic timbers popular with specifiers, builders, trade, and DIY. Porta prides themselves on offering certified and sustainable timbers to give you both products of beauty and peace of mind.
Whatever the application Porta is here to assist you in selecting the right timber species in terms of aesthetics and practical outcomes that will perfectly suit your next project.
Tasmanian Oak
Tasmanian Oak timber finishes and polishes well, holds nails, and screws firmly, and glues extremely well. It is a Durability Class 3 timber, suitable for the construction of window/door frames with appropriate coating protection. Porta’s core moulding range is Porta Select Grade, which features very few marks and natural characteristics, making it a stronger, cleaner, and more versatile timber.
The colour of Tasmanian Oak ranges from “straw” to light reddish/brown. Natural variations in grain, colour, and texture are considered characteristics of the species. Tasmanian Oak is a strong, stable timber, and easy to work with. It is well known for its staining qualities easily matching it with other timbers, finishes, and furnishings. It planes, sands, finishes, and glues well. This also makes Tasmanian Oak ideal for internal wall and ceiling linings, joinery applications, furniture, mouldings, decorative trim, cabinetry, flooring, windows & doors, and internal joinery (architraves & skirting).
American Oak
American White Oak is a native American hardwood with medium bending and crushing strength, low stiffness, but excellent steam bending properties. Architects and designers increasingly rely on its excellent strength for structural applications because of its overall strength and durability.
Referred to as a ‘blonde’ timber, light in colour, American Oak can vary from light straw-coloured tones through to mottled mid-brown. Its grain is typically straight, with a medium to coarse texture and distinctive growth rings. Natural variations in grain, colour, and texture are characteristics of the species.
Among its uses are construction, wall linings, furniture, flooring, architectural joinery, exterior joinery, mouldings, doors, kitchen cabinets, panelling, railway sleepers, and timber bridges.
Clear Pine
Clear Pine, also known as Radiata Pine is a soft and low-density timber that is cream to light-straw in colour, with wide annual growth rings. It is a low-durability Class 4 timber. Its grain is usually straight, and while knots are common, Porta’s Clear Pine is select grade and knot free. Select grade features very few marks and natural characteristics, making it a stronger, cleaner, and more versatile timber.
Clear Pine is very easy to work with, its low density means it is easy to nail and holds screws very well. It can be successfully stained, painted, waxed or colour washed.
Clear Pine is suitable for use as mouldings, decorative trim, panelling, internal joinery, cladding, toy making, and numerous other DIY projects and is suitable for wet areas with an oil-based undercoat or stain finish.
Primed FJ Pine
Primed FJ Pine also known as Primed Pine is pre-coated with two coats of a specially developed water-based primer. It is manufactured from FJ Clear Pine which provides enhanced strength and stability. FJ stands for finger jointed.
The pre-coated primed finish appears matte white.
Porta’s primed pine mouldings are ready to paint with either water (acrylic) or oil-based paints. Primed FJ Pine is very easy to work with and is low-density, holding nails, and screws very well.
Primed FJ Pine is ideal for a wide variety of internal applications including window & door trims, architrave, skirting and trim mouldings, decorative uses, toys, joinery, shelving, panelling, and lining boards.
Cumaru
Porta Cumaru has been used in a broad range of demanding external and internal construction projects in the residential, commercial, and landscaping sectors.
Cumaru is an extremely strong timber. Porta’s beams are strength graded to F34 and posts to F27. This stronger timber enables longer spans and reduces the number of posts required. Porta Cumaru has a high density of 1,085 kg/m3, meeting BAL 19 requirements as specified in AS 3959-2009 for use in timber construction in bushfire zones. Porta Cumaru is a Class 1 timber with an above-ground life expectancy of greater than 40 years and in-ground of greater than 25 years. It is also termite resistant.
Porta Cumaru is an attractive timber, with a unique interlocking grain. Mid-brown in colour with a reddish or purple hue. It can age to a lustrous grey if left uncoated.
This timber is ideal for applications where durable timber is needed such as decking, cladding, pergolas, boardwalks, street furniture, and marina applications.
Porta Cumaru stands up to UV and sunshine exposure. It has been used in externally exposed applications such as boardwalks and wharves, for many years. Our trials show Porta Cumaru withstands severe weather exposure.
Porta recommends using an oil-based paint/stain preparation due to its high timber density, as water-based products have minimal penetration for long-term coating durability. Compared to other hardwoods tested, Porta Cumaru demonstrated near-zero tannin bleed.
General Purpose Pine
Porta’s General Purpose Pine is a unique specification to Porta based on AS 4785.1 – 2006. It is a low-durability Class 4 timber and sits between clear and standard grade to ensure it is suitable for a range of applications.
General Purpose Pine, like Clear Pine, is typically a cream to light straw in colour. The key difference is that General Purpose Pine is given a greater allowance for natural timber features such as knots, resin pockets, and other natural characteristics of the timber.
Known for its knotty character, it is easy to work with, holds nails and screws well, and glues easily with common adhesives. Often specified for the foundation and structure for many renovation, carpentry, and DIY projects. This timber can be painted, stained, colour washed, waxed, or left raw. Its grain accepts preservative treatment well, which can provide protection for exterior use.
H3 Treated Pine
Porta’s H3 Treated Pine is infused with copper fixed ACQ (Alkaline Copper Quaternary) waterborne preservatives which increases the timber’s service life and durability for 30+ years. It is a safe, user-friendly, preservative that complies with Australian Standard AS1604.
H3 Treated Pine uses Select grade Pine. Select grade features very few marks and natural characteristics, making it a stronger, cleaner, and more versatile timber. It is easy to work with, and ideal for a variety of above-ground outdoor applications such as window and door trims, handrails, and pergolas.
This timber will initially have a greenish appearance that will eventually weather to a honey brown before fading to a lustrous grey after exposure to wind, rain, and sun.
Meranti
Meranti is soft to firm hardwood timber, not subject to warping or twisting, and is dent resistant. Due to its stability, it can be used for a wide variety of internal applications such as joinery applications for mouldings, cabinetry, architraves and skirting, newel posts, handrails, furniture, and panelling.
Meranti ranges from pale red to reddish/brown. Due to the number of variations being marketed under the botanical species name ‘Shorea’, yet called Meranti, there are some colour variations across the timber species. It has a moderately coarse grain but is even in texture with an attractive ribbon feature.
There are two types of Meranti, dark red and light red. Meranti consists of 20 different species meaning the span of colours is quite varied so you will see many shades from light pink to dark red. Porta manufacturers and moulds light red Meranti, which is less dense than dark red making it ideally suited to mouldings and internal joinery applications where decorative profiles are needed.
No matter the project or application, indoor, outdoor, residential, or commercial, Porta has products made from a wide variety of timber species to suit your next project.
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Talk to our team of experts to help guide you with specifying Porta timber on your next design project.
