Replies

1. 
   OneofmanyBobs | Jun 11, 2002 04:10pm | #1

   Who knows?? They saw them green. PT lumber is

   the worst garbage to work with. I try to buy it

   and let it dry a couple months. No two pieces the

   same exact size.

2. 
   JohnSprung | Jun 11, 2002 08:24pm | #2

   You can't rip it on the table saw without cutting off the treated surface, which is often less than 1/16" deep.  Does code require treated material for your application?  If not, you can use better lumber and give it substantial termite and dry rot resistance by applying Jasco's Termin-8, which is a green oil based product.  It's strictly for outside use, since it stinks severely.

   -- J.S.

1. 
   JamesDuHamel | Jun 12, 2002 03:49am | #3

   You can't rip it on the table saw without cutting off the treated surface, which is often less than 1/16" deep. 

   Since when? In my area, I can cut a 2x piece of treated lumber and the treatment is completely to the center of the wood. A 6 x 6 beam is treated to about 3/4's or so to the center.

   PT here is SYP, and you buy it WET, WET, WET. Dripping wet, in fact. I let it dry out a bit before I even attempt to use it.

   Very wet PT wood WILL shrink, and shrink a lot. The mills here leave it oversized for just that reason.

   Just a thought...James DuHamel

   J & M Home Maintenance Service

1. 
   Buglehead | Jun 12, 2002 08:28am | #4

   Hi James,

   The SYP in your area accepts treatment a lot better (i.e.-deeper) than the Douglas fir used in the western states.  Even incised, a lot of 2x6 is green only 3/16" from the surface.  Count your blessings.

   Bill

   P.S.  As they say, "It's a regional thing."

1. 
   FrankB89 | Jun 13, 2002 03:48am | #6

   Two treatment plants in my area (western Oregon)...supply local area plus most of Hawaii and Oceania (South Pacific).  Most of the treated wood is Hemlock, Sitka Spruce and pine, all woods that take treatment well, generally speaking.

   Douglas fir is rarely treated here, usually upon request only.  The exception is a plant in the Willamette Valley that makes a product called "Design Wood" which is structural select doug fir without incising.  It's stained to appear like redwood, is tight knot, tight grain and kiln dried.  It's my choice for mid-priced decking (I use .40 ground contact for under structures and posts).  Costs about $900 per mbf.

   One caution on working with incised wood.  occasionally, one of the incising teeth will break off in the wood during the incising process and can raise hell with saw teeth, etc.  Never run it through a planer! 

1. 
   Buglehead | Jun 16, 2002 02:38am | #7

   Thanks for the "tip" about broken-off incising teeth.  I never have seen it and never thought about it, but it would be horrible in a planer.  Thickness planing a board that needed incising to accept treatment would seem, however, to be the height of folly, as you would be cutting away the green skin of inedibility that you paid the premium for in the first place.  Maybe the Hardie company will develop a fiber-cement 2x that is stiff without weighing a ton, and all we need to worry about is silicosis, no heavy metals.  I don't know why doug fir is all we see here, given that SPF is so much more receptive to treatment.  Maybe everyone needs the fir fastener values for all their seismic calcs to pencil out.

2. 
   FrankB89 | Jun 16, 2002 03:27am | #8

   I agee it would seem folly to plane off the surface of a PT board, but a friend of mine was using a 3" Makita plane to shave a little off a 4X on a deck and hit one of those teeth...

   And I agree that trying to treat Doug fir for ground contact is pretty pointless but I suppose it gives some measure of protection.

   I have, however, replaced deck support posts of .40PT SPF that were ten years in the ground and were totally rotted out on the inside, leaving a shell about 1" thick.

   In Vietnam, I remember a ventilator for an underground command post that was built of PT wood from who knows where.  One of our guys walked by it one day and bumped it with his foot.  It totally disintegrated because most of the little structure (like a small cupola) consisted only of paint in the shape of the original boards.

   I've often wondered what kind of paint that was!

    

2. 
   JohnSprung | Jun 12, 2002 09:04pm | #5

   James --

   I'll try to post a picture of the end of a crosscut piece of the stuff we have here.  The treatment really is shallow.  I slop some termin-8 on the ends before installing them.

   -- J.S.

3. 
   cwpp1 | Jun 16, 2002 02:30pm | #9

   Albee:

   Pressure treaded lumber is made by putting logs into a gaint pressure vat. As the pressure is increase the chemicals are forced throughout the dry log. They have measurements for the amount of chemicals .4,.6 etc. If it is .6 I believe that it is suppost to be protected from rot or insects for ever.

   I'm sure someone will give you more information. But if all your boards have the same amount of moisture scrib and rip the large ones with a portable power saw.

   Charlie

1. 
   Piffin | Jun 16, 2002 04:15pm | #10

   It's only done that way to make PT LOGS.

   For framing lumber, the two bys are milled out first, then treated. It would be ridiculous to spend extra money and time pumping chemical into wane lumber on a log that will then be milled away later, not to mention the extra work on the blades to work through the chemical.

   Excellence is its own reward!

1. 
   cwpp1 | Jun 17, 2002 05:28am | #11

   Piffin:

   Im not sure of the process. The logs may be cut into lumbr first. But they are placed in a pressure vat to penatrate the entire depth of the lumber. The next time I'm in Sweetwater, where the lumber is processed I'll get more information.

   Charlie

1. 
   AJinNZ | Jun 17, 2002 06:38am | #12

   Round here the pressure treated stuff is all Radiata pine, the treatment goes all the way through. With regard to some being wider than the others.........I went to the timber yard once to get some posts for a deck. The old guy there said, " you can have them dry and bent or straight and wet, ya cant have both" about summed it up really.

   We always plane down the high spots right then. I cant see any other way round it, apart from stacking it and waiting for it to calm down. That unfortunately takes time and space. So far i cant say i have noticed any problems with 'just doing it'.

   good luck 

   Wood Hoon

2. 
   Piffin | Jun 17, 2002 07:15pm | #13

   Don't bother. I am sure of the process. It's good to be sure before posting. I hate embarassment. Don't you?Excellence is its own reward!