What timber is this?

[philipjdall]

I've just gutted one of the rooms in our house and am now in the precess of redecorating. I stripped the windowsill back to discover that it is a rather nice piece of timber. Anyone know what it is?

The house is 1889 but I don't think this sill is original, as the floorboard pattern in the roof hinted that this was once the boiler room.

At a guess could have been redone around the 50's? My guess is teak but it really is just a guess... Any insight welcomed!

 

[Chrispy]

Probably one of the Meranti's at a guess

 

[Woody2Shoes]

Hi - I reckon it's some kind of tropical hardwood (he says, narrowing it down not a lot). I suspect that it was installed at the same time as the windows (which look like they're no more than about 20 years old - probably younger) - a window board from anything earlier than about the 1960's in most "ordinary" houses would most likely have been pine or tiled. Similarly, unless it was quite a high falutin' house it's unlikely to have started life with a boiler, I think - maybe a "copper" for heating water or some kind of range - central heating became less unusual from about the 1950's. Cheers, W2S

 

[philipjdall]

Interesting. I wondered if it was meranti, we used to use it a lot in South Africa but wasn't too sure if that would have been used here. Although I'm still not convinced.

On the sill vs window age, the only thing telling me it's older then the window is that I had to remove about 7 layers of paint until I got to bare wood. Possible in 20 years, but unlikely. Other sills in the new end of the house are pine, which is also why I was really surprised to find this!

 

[hammer n nails]

Teak