Table material question

EggerInCharlotte

Hey, folks - 

I am in the early stages of designing and building a table for my LBGE.  I see tons of great pictures and designs - all of them made from fine woods.  I'm wondering about making one out of a manufactured wood - something like TREX.  For all the pictures I see here, I don't see any made of that material.  Any thoughts on why that may be?

henapple

I always lean towards heat resistance tops

EggerInCharlotte

...I should've added more details on that first post;

I am planning on a ceramic tile top with a 14"x18" inserted piece of granite for the LBGE to set on.

The fine woods look beautiful - but, I'm not much on maintenance. So, I'm thinking the structure would be made out of manufactured wood.

cortguitarman

My table is framed with pressure treated lumber. My bottom shelf is made of pvc decking from trex. My top is concrete. Other than some deck stain on the framing, this baby is maintenance free. (the deck stain took me about 30 minutes to apply).

I'd stay away from composite decking and go with a pvc material. It is a bit more expensive, but worth the cost. It is very scratch resistant, most have a lifetime guaranty against fading, splitting, etc. I've built several decks out of this material and it is awesome. I recommend Azek or Wolf pvc decking. Trex has discontinued their pvc line.

I only used trex on mine because I only needed 5 boards and Lowes had it. I didn't feel like running to my lumber supplier.

You'll be fine with heat resistance. It has a greater tolerance than wood. You still should use a paver between the egg and the lower shelf.

Also, the grain is on one side, so you can flip them upside down for your table top and have a mirror smooth surface. (it won't look as good, bit it will clean up easy).

Oh, pvc decking won't stain either like composite!