Pressure treated lumber – forget it, seal it, or rebuild?
Hi all,
I recently purchased a home that has the air handler and water heater on a pedestal, within a utility closet. The handler draws air from the crawlspace underneath the pedestal and access to said crawlspace is through an access panel that also holds the standard house air filter.
When we first bought, the water heater was leaking and when I took it out to replace it – I thought it a good idea to reinforce the pedestal structure that the air handler and water heater were living on (since much of that wood got wet). The air handler was still in place and money was tight so tearing it all out was not an option at the time.
I used some new plywood and also some pressure treated (green) wood that I had from another project to reinforce the pedestal. The PT wood is modern, and from a big box store – so no arsenic. And in total i used probably 15ft of PT 2×4 lumber down there.
I’ve attached a picture – you can see the new PT wood elements are light in color.
I was naive to PT wood and it’s potential for off-gassing etc! Now i’m kicking myself worried I’m polluting the air in the home with harmful gases.
The air handler draws air past this PT wood and into the home. Of course, this was all done about a year and a half ago and we weren’t living in the home at the time of the repairs. I don’t smell any chemicals in the air but I just want to do whats right so i’m not getting the family sick.
To rebuild with non-PT wood would mean draining and uninstalling the water heater so i could take the weight off the pedestal.
I’ve also thought about sealing the PT wood elements with a couple coats of shellac, to prevent any off gassing.
I’ve read up on PT wood and how it’s done and the chemicals involved now, wish I had thought of it before.
The EPA says its fine for indoors……
Would love some feedback or opinions. Am I overly worried about this? What would you do?
Thanks for any input all!
Replies
It wouldn't bother me but I understand your concerns. paint it with a latex sealer like
Red Guard and you should be fine. Wouldn't hurt to paint the floor with it too.
Agreed, probably not an issue. As you noted, no arsenic, which would be the most significant issue. An alternative to RedGuard would be a sealer like Kilz Max (aka Kilz Restoration, https://www.kilz.com/primer/kilz-restoration). A shellac based sealer is traditional, but Kilz claims their water-based sealer will hide "smoke and pet odors." Zinsser offers a "synthetic shellac" water-based product, https://www.rustoleum.com/product-catalog/consumer-brands/zinsser/primer-sealers/b-i-n-advanced-synthetic-shellac-sealer-clear