White Meranti

 

White Meranti Wood: Versatile and Durable for Medium Construction

Introduction
White Meranti wood, derived from the Anthoshorea group of Shorea species, is a highly versatile wood used widely across Malaysia and beyond. Known for its durability and moderate hardness, this wood is often referred to by various local names such as meranti in Peninsular Malaysia and Sarawak, and melapi in Sabah. It is an excellent choice for light to medium construction due to its balance of strength, durability, and ease of working.

Key Characteristics

• Density: White Meranti is a Light Hardwood with a density ranging from 495-995 kg/m³ air dry, making it suitable for a wide variety of structural applications.

• Natural Durability: The wood is classified as moderately durable and performs well in Malaysian conditions. It is, however, susceptible to pinhole borer and blue stain infections if not adequately treated or ventilated.

• Texture & Grain: The wood has a moderately coarse texture with shallowly interlocked grain, giving it both durability and aesthetic appeal.

Strength Properties

White Meranti timber belongs to Strength Group C, ensuring reliable performance for medium-level structural uses. Its moderate strength and durability make it suitable for various construction applications.

Applications

White Meranti wood is highly adaptable and used for a range of light to medium construction purposes:

• Construction: Ideal for posts, beams, joists, and rafters in both indoor and outdoor settings.

• Flooring & Decking: Suitable for residential and light commercial flooring, as well as decking.

• Furniture: Frequently used for creating durable, aesthetically pleasing furniture.

• Plywood & Shipbuilding: The timber’s workability makes it a favored choice for plywood and for building ships and boats.

Drying & Machining Properties

• Air Drying: White Meranti seasons at a moderate rate, with 13 mm thick boards taking about 2-3 months to air dry, while 38 mm boards take 5 months. Kiln drying is recommended for faster results.

• Machining: The wood is relatively easy to machine, particularly in the green state. It is easy to plane, resaw, and cross-cut, although in the air-dried state, it can become slightly more difficult.

Nailing & Shrinkage

• Nailing: The nailing property of White Meranti varies from good to poor, depending on the species.

• Shrinkage: The wood exhibits moderate shrinkage with tangential shrinkage ranging from 2.7% to 3%, ensuring dimensional stability.

Conclusion

White Meranti wood is a durable and versatile choice for light to medium construction, offering strength, ease of use, and aesthetic appeal. Whether for furniture, flooring, or construction, White Meranti delivers exceptional value with its balance of workability and durability.

 

INTRODUCTION

The Standard Malaysian Name for the timber of the Anthoshorea group of Shorea (Dipterocarpaceae). Vernacular names applied include meranti (Peninsular Malaysia and Sarawak) with various epithets, melapi (Sabah) with various epithets and other localised names too numerous to list here. Major species include S. agami, S. assamica, S. bracteolata, S. dealbata, S. henryana, S. hypochra, S. lamellata, S. resinosa and S. roxburghii. The sapwood is white and is moderately sharply differentiated from the heartwood, which is almost white when fresh and becomes light yellow-brown on exposure.

Also known as White Meranti (Brunei); Lum-bao (Cambodia); Makai (India); Dammar putih, Dammar tenang putih, Kayu tahan and Meranti putih (Indonesia); Mai khae hom, Mai kheen fai and Mai kheen khan yon (Laos); Kyilan (Myanmar); Manggasinoro and Yellow lauan (Philippines); Dumala dun (Sri Lanka); Chan, Khiam Ka Nom, Khiem Kha Norng, Kiam Ka Nom, Phayom, Saya-khao, Sukrom and Takhian-Sai (Thailand).

DENSITY

The timber is a Light Hardwood with a density of 495-995 kg/m3 air dry.

NATURAL DURABILITY

The white meranti is classified as moderately durable under Malaysian conditions. Untreated timbers of white meranti of standard test dimensions of 50 mm x 50 mm x 600 mm were subjected to graveyard tests at the Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM). The average service life for the four species of white meranti tested are respectively 2.6 years (S. bracteolata), 3.6 years (S. hypochra), 4.5 years (S. roxburghii) and 4.1 years (S. henryana). The sapwood of white meranti appears to be rather readily and rapidly attacked by ‘pin-hole’ borers after felling. The timber is not resistant to marine borer attacks even though it has high content of silica in the cells. Creosote/diesel fuel treated sleepers of white meranti (S. bracteolata) have been reported to last as long as 19 years at a colliery in Peninsular Malaysia (Thomas, 1949).

PRESERVATIVE TREATMENT

The timber is amenable to preservative treatment.

TEXTURE

Texture is moderately coarse and even, with rarely straight, usually shallowly interlocked or occasionally deeply interlocked grain.

STRENGTH PROPERTIES

The timber falls into Strength Group C (Engku, 1988b) or SG 5 (MS 544:Part 2:2001).

Strength Properties of White Meranti

Species	Test Condition	Modulus of Elasticity(MPa)	Modulus of Rupture(MPa)	Compression parallel to grain (MPa)	Compression perpendicular to grain (MPa)	Shear strength(MPa)
S. bracteolata	Green	12,700	63	33.8	2.6	6.1
	Air dry	–	–	44.3	3.9	9.4
S. henryana	Green	18,400	109	61.8	9.4	14.0
	Air dry	19,400	132	67.1	11.0	14.2
S. hypochra	Green	14,400	79	42.1	4.9	9.0
	Air dry	15,700	97	51.7	5.9	10.0
S. roxburghii	Green	10,800	73	40.4	5.2	9.0
	Air dry	11,500	90	47.7	7.0	10.6

MACHINING PROPERTIES

It is easy to slightly difficult to resaw in the green condition and slightly difficult to very difficult in the air dry condition. Cross-cutting is also easier in the green than in the air dry condition. Planing is easy to slightly difficult and the surface produced is smooth to rough.

Machining Properties of White Meranti

Species	Test Condition	Sawing		Planing		Boring		Turning
		Re-sawing	Cross Cutting	Ease of planing	Quality of finish	Ease of boring	Quality of finish	Ease of turning	Quality of finish
S. bracteolata	Green	slightly difficult	easy	moderately easy	rough	easy	rough	–	–
	Air dry	difficult	slightly difficult	moderately easy	rough	easy	rough	moderately easy	rough
S. henryana	Green	slightly difficult	slightly difficult	easy	rough	easy	smooth	–	–
	Air dry	very difficult	very difficult	slightly difficult	rough	difficult	moderately smooth	–	–
S. hypochra	Green	easy	easy	easy	smooth	easy	rough	–	–
	Air dry	slightly difficult	slightly difficult	slightly difficult	moderately smooth	moderately easy	rough	moderately difficult	rough
S. roxburghii	Green	easy	fairly easy	easy	smooth	easy	smooth	–	–
	Air dry	slightly difficult	slightly difficult	slightly difficult	moderately smooth	easy	rough	moderately difficult	rough

NAILING PROPERTY

Nailing property ranges from good to poor depending on the species.

AIR DRYING

The seasoning characteristics of some species of white meranti are summarised below:

Species	Time to air dry (months)			Remarks
	13 mm thick boards	25 mm thick boards	38 mm thick boards
S. assamica	–	3.5	–	Fairly slow drying.
S. bracteolata	2	–	3	Fairly fast drying; slight cupping, bowing, end-checking and surface-checking, insect and fungi attacks.
S. henryana	3	–	5	Fairly slow drying; only slight end-checks and staining.
S. hypochra	3	–	5	Fairly slow drying; only slight splitting and staining.
S. roxburghii	3	4	5	Fairly slow drying; no defects.

KILN-DRYING

Kiln Schedule J is recommended. The timber dries rapidly without any defects. 25 mm thick boards take approximately 5 days to kiln-dry from 50 to 10% moisture content. When drying timbers of thickness above 40 mm and up to 75 mm, the relative humidity of the original drying schedule should be 5% higher in each case and for timber of thickness greater than 75 mm, the relative humidity should be increased correspondingly by 10%.

Kiln Schedule J

Moisture Content (%)	Temperature (Dry Bulb)		Temperature (Wet Bulb)		Relative Humidity (%) (approx.)
	� F	� C	� F	� C
Green	135	57.0	123	50.5	70
50	135	57.0	119	48.0	60
40	140	60.0	118	47.5	50
30	150	65.5	121	49.0	40
20	170	76.5	127	53.0	30

SHRINKAGE

The shrinkage of some species of white meranti is summarised below: 

Species	Shrinkage (%) (Green to air dry)		Remarks
	Radial	Tangential
S. assamica	1.1	2.9	Shrinkage rather high.
S. bracteolata	1.8	3.0	Shrinkage fairly high.
S. henryana	1.1	2.6	Shrinkage rather high.
S. hypochra	1.3	2.7	Shrinkage rather high.
S. roxburghii	0.6	1.7	Shrinkage fairly low.

DEFECTS

White meranti generally contains less defects compared with other forms of merantis. The incidence of borer attacks in heartwood of the timber is quite negligible. The sapwood is rather readily and rapidly attacked by ‘pin-hole’ borers. Similar to most white coloured timbers, white meranti is also liable to blue stain infection (particularly the sapwood portion) if the timber is inadequately ventilated. Old trees of this timber may contain brittle-heart or in more serious cases, hollow-heart. Compression failures or cross-breaks are commonly associated with the brittle or hollow heart. Logs appear to split very little after felling.

USES

The timber is suitable for light to medium construction, posts, beams, joists, rafters, door and window frames and sills, planking, staircase (carriages, newel, risers, sprandrel framing, stringer, railing, tread, bullnose, round ends and winders), panelling, mouldings, partitioning, furniture, flooring, decking, railway sleepers, tool handles (non impact), disposable chopsticks, vehicle bodies (framework, floor boards and planking), ship and boat building (keels, keelsons, framework and general planking) and plywood.