Meranti

Overview

Meranti is not one wood but the trade name for a large group of Southeast Asian Shorea species, sold in four main colour groups: dark red, light red, white and yellow. It is the standard affordable tropical hardwood for doors, windows, interior joinery and plywood, a reddish, fairly plain wood that stains and paints well. Pick it for painted or stained interior work where you want a stable, easy wood without paying for mahogany.

Pros

• Easy to work, and it glues, stains and finishes well (Wood Database).
• Moderate price for an imported hardwood, and widely available worldwide.
• Trees grow long and clean-boled (Timber Development UK), so long, wide boards are normal.
• Weight and hardness spread across the groups lets you match the wood to the job.

Cons

• Variable: each group averages many species, so colour, weight and strength differ between lots.
• Durability is modest. Wood Database rates dark red moderately durable to non-durable and prone to insect attack; Timber Development UK calls it slightly durable. Not a premium outdoor wood.
• Small amounts of silica in some species blunt tools; interlocked grain can tear out when planing.
• Dark red has very poor steam-bending properties (Wood Database).
• Fine dust irritates eyes, throat and skin.

Variants and subspecies

Janka hardness and weight (Wood Database averages; each averages a handful of species):

• Light red meranti: 550 lbf, 480 kg/m3. The softest and palest of the four.
• Dark red meranti: 800 lbf, 675 kg/m3. The most common lumber group; reddish to purplish brown.
• White meranti: 1,050 lbf, 590 kg/m3. Pale, with silica reported above 0.5%, so it dulls tools.
• Yellow meranti: 700 lbf, 565 kg/m3. Pale yellow-brown.
• Balau: the dense Shorea group, covered separately in Balau (bangkirai).

"Philippine mahogany" and "Asian mahogany" are trade names only. Wood Database notes meranti is unrelated to true mahogany (Swietenia, Khaya).

Working and finishing

Machines cleanly with sharp tools; use carbide on the silica-bearing groups. Plane with the grain direction in mind. Interlocked sections tear out. Glues well. Fill the open pores before a film finish.

Staining and finishing colour

Wood Database reports that it stains and finishes well. For a "mahogany" look use a warm red or brown dye; white and yellow meranti start pale, so they take colour more freely.

Sustainability and handling

Not listed in the CITES Appendices (Cirad Tropix, Washington Convention 2023 sheets; statuses checked 2026-09). That is not the same as safe. Wood Database says many Shorea are on the IUCN Red List and calls most of them critically endangered, but Wikipedia species pages that cite IUCN show a spread (for example S. materialis EN, S. laevis VU, S. leprosula NT, S. parvifolia and S. macrophylla LC). The two sources conflict and I could not open the Red List itself, so the CR badge here is the worst case for the group. A certified source is worth paying for. Lacey Act and EUDR obligations were not researched for this entry; ask the importer for legality papers. Dust irritates, so extract it.

Popular projects

Interior and exterior doors and window frames, painted cabinets and built-ins, mouldings, plywood and veneer, and general joinery.

Buying notes

Ask which group you are getting and whether it is certified. One US supplier (LL Johnson, updated 2026-09-24) lists dark red meranti 1 in at $8.88 per board foot, falling to $6.81 at 100+ bf. Avoid anything sold simply as "mahogany" at meranti prices.