“Bois rouge” for your deck: fact and fiction
In Guadeloupe as in Martinique, we are regularly asked for a deck in “bois rouge” — red wood. Behind this familiar name hide several very different species — and a few costly misunderstandings. Let’s set things straight.
The short answer
“Bois rouge” is not a species: it is a family of tones. Padauk, cumaru, ipe, red woods from Africa or French Guiana… What they share: a beautiful warm colour at installation, which turns brown then grey within a few months of Caribbean sun, regular maintenance for anyone who wants to keep the tone, and no manufacturer warranty. If you want a stable colour and durability covered by a written manufacturer warranty, look at acetylated wood too.
Which wood are we actually talking about?
Depending on suppliers and islands, “bois rouge” means padauk (spectacularly red fresh from the saw), cumaru (reddish-brown, very dense), sometimes ipe (olive-brown with red glints) or various African and Guianese mahogany-toned species. Very different woods in durability, stability, availability and price: asking for “red wood” without naming the species means buying a colour without knowing the wood. First rule: demand the species name, its durability class and the batch’s origin.
The red colour: fleeting by nature
This is the most frequent misunderstanding. The red of padauk or cumaru is the colour of fresh wood: exposed to UV — and ours are unforgiving, from Saint-François to Gustavia — it darkens to brown then lightens to silver-grey, often in less than a season. Keeping the red demands a pigmented saturating oil applied regularly, on a deck cleaned and brightened before every coat. Many owners give up after two years and let it grey — which is healthy for the wood, but far from the red deck in the catalogue.
What red wood does well — and less well
- Well: the dense species (ipe, cumaru, padauk) are naturally durable, strong, and make beautiful decks when the batch is good and the installation careful.
- Less well: high barefoot heat (dense, dark woods), movement with humidity (varying gaps), ongoing maintenance for the tone, traceability to verify, rising prices — and no written manufacturer warranty: longevity is a reputation, not a commitment.
If a controlled tone is what you are after
Two honest paths. Either embrace the natural cycle of a tropical hardwood — fleeting red, grey patina, saturating oil if you want to turn back. Or choose a wood with a controlled tone from the start: Accoya®, a Use Class 4 (UC4) solid acetylated wood, comes in natural golden honey (an elegant, even silver patina if left bare) and in Color Grey tinted through the full thickness — the day-one look, designed to last with no finishing maintenance (manufacturer data), with a written warranty of up to 50 years above ground, subject to installation conditions. It is what we install in Guadeloupe and Martinique, and on quotation in Saint-Martin as in Saint-Barthélemy.
See both tones for real
Natural honey or Color Grey: compare the boards at a depot, or order directly by the m².
Related questions
What is called “bois rouge” for a deck in the Caribbean?
The expression most often covers the red or reddish-brown tropical hardwoods used for decking: padauk (very red when installed), cumaru, ipe, sometimes African or Guianese “red woods”. It is not a single species but a family of tones — with very different durability and prices from one species to another.
Does red wood keep its colour in the sun?
No. It is the classic disappointment: the bright red of padauk, for instance, turns brown then silver-grey within a few months of UV exposure — even faster under the Caribbean sun. To keep the tone, a saturating oil must be applied regularly; left bare, every tropical hardwood greys.
What alternative to red wood for a durable deck?
If what you want above all is reliability and longevity, a solid acetylated wood like Accoya offers Use Class 4 (UC4), great stability and a manufacturer warranty of up to 50 years above ground, subject to installation conditions — in a natural honey tone that weathers, or in Color Grey tinted through the full thickness, with a controlled look from day one.