I'm going to use three straight 8.5" diameter spruce poles from a tree I took down as posts for a covered porch. I need to use the drawknife to debark, and then soak up the wood with some kind of preservative to keep the bugs and rot away. Carpenter bees will be an issue, I'm not sure about termites. The posts will be completely under cover, and anchored to the concrete deck that's about 2' off the ground. I'd like some recommendations for what preservative to use?
If the logs are mostly under a cover then I would go for a Borate treatment like Bora Care or Tim Bor. Expensive though. They are the go to treatment for log cabins. There are also many home made Borate preservatives on the internet that use Borax, boric acid and antifreeze. Soak the bottom ends in the solution for a few days then paint the rest. When dry, stain or seal the whole log! They are all very effective but being water soluble they need a sealer to prevent leaching away of the product if they are exposed to periodic moisture. If you look at most copper napthanate products nowadays, the active ingredients for home owners have been so limited by legislation as to be useless after a few years. I wouldn't even bother with those. Wish you the best on your project!
Hello Are you going to use some sort of concrete anchors that keep the wood posts isolated from the concrete so thy do not wick up a lot of moisture that may cause some rot?
Good idea. As the posts are round and not uniform, I'll need to do some thinking about how to work with the anchors.
I bought the materials to make this but havent made it yet. Not sure if it'll work on bugs but he says the national park services use this mix.
I've seen carpenter bees burrow into anything that they can chew; treated, painted, etc. I'd recommend watching to see if they show up and if they do, install a few traps to catch them. In a recent project at our place, I inserted a section of metal flashing into a kerf cut into the bottom of new cedar fascia boards. This should keep them from turning our fascia boards into swiss cheese as they have in the past.