WARNING, RANT AHEAD Today's PT lumber bites the big one. It rots and has has no resistance to insects. I built a custom table for my Big Green Egg using this cr@p and carpenter bees love it. They have no interest in the PT lumber that was used in building the deck in 2006 because that was real pressure treated lumber. I think that now they just wave a wand over wood and say, "Voila, it's now pressure treated" Rant over, thank you very much.
Real CCA treated lumber back in the day was the shizzy. Then they stepped it down to ACQ. Trouble was soon on the horizon. Marine grade, although more expensive (imagine that), is the way to go if you want something to last.
There are two types. The stuff that isn't supposed to set on or be placed in the ground, its more yellow than green, and the dark green ground contact variety. It will have a tag stating that. I mistakenly used the treated that's not intended for ground contact and it rotted pretty quickly. A target stand was what I built and wanted treated legs.
Green treated is ok for ground contact, but its nothing like the treated wood of yesteryear! I was just working on patching things up on some green treated wood tonight...its about 8 years old and the bugs/rot are chewing it up pretty good.
Yeah, for some reason bugs didn't like the arsenic (technically chromated copper arsenate), imagine that - LO. However, I think that was phased out a couple of years before 2006. Maybe you got ahold of some stuff that was left over since they could still sell it. But, I think you are right in that it also lasted longer.
There is no doubt that older pressure treats worked and now they don't! Here in Washington state the guide lines must be: "If it works we must replace it with something that does not"! The brown or green after treatments like Cupranol are now a joke because the amount of active ingredients have been so regulated . One treatment that did work was Borates. One of the most environmentally safe treatments around. Both Timber Bore and Timber Cure were wonderful products that many Log cabin owners used. Now you can't import them into the state. The ban included 20 Mule Team Borax. No longer allowed because it is too toxic. Really? After so many babies have had their poopy diapers sweetened with it? Me included! Do they realize that food grade borax is manufactured and many health nuts ingest a small amount a day for what ails them with no bad effects. There are "licensed" companies in WA that do mold remediation and use similar borate products to Timber Bore and Cure that kill mold and fungus and arrest rot as well as prevent return. They even treat homes before the framing is covered and guarantee them for life. If you can live your whole life in a home that has been liberally doused with borates how toxic can it be. I am sure that other interests besides Environmentalists have a vested interests in ineffective decay treatments. They could be: The Timber industry, Construction and Remodeling and Repair industry, Decking and Fence and Dock installers as well as The treatment manufacturers themselves. Nice to make a product that has to be reapplied every 2-3 years to work! Sorry about my rant. Must be because my supply of old time, real live, actually works wood treatments in the storage shed is growing low.
Teddy Roosevelt was an environmentalist and conservationist in the old (and true) sense of the word. Modern interpretations of the term frustrate me. One can be an environmentalist and disagree with many of the bans or policies pushed by factions. Modern PT is awful. Consider locust, hedge, and white oak as replacements.
Too many of our good citizens were eating the arsenic treated wood, it would seem. Can't have nothin nice.
Big treated lumber supplier in this area was “Cox”. They dried their lumber prior to treating if I remember correctly and it was really nice stuff. They sold out a number of years ago and I’ll have to see who purchased them and if the new owners are still doing it that way. It was so nice to work with and didn’t squirt at you when driving a nail and didn’t weigh 80 lbs for a 2x8-10! IPE is good stuff but needs to be predrilled as I recall. Too hard to drive a nail through and also heavy/expensive. But if you want a deck that is do it once and done that’s probably the best choice!
Funny thing, I built a picnic table in July 2011 almost as an experiment. The frame is pt but the benches and 2x6 top is regular HD or Lowes common framing material. It's been outside since then and the legs where they contact the ground are getting tender but all of the laid flat common framing material is showing no signs of trouble! I carved 7/11 on the underside of the top and saw this the other day while laid out on one of the benches. My how time flies!
Considering pressure treated wood isn't very good anymore, what wood would you recommend for a project that would mandate wood be in contact with dirt? Would cedar be OK?
