pressure treated posts warping

[yomax4]

I built a new very large deck out of the latest treated wood. In 1 year the boards had warped enough to pull through the screws and the shrinkage was amazing. I had 1" gaps between the ends of boards. The sides were installed with no gap and they had 3/4" in 10 months. We ended up tearing off all of the 1 yr old boards and installed the new composite boards. ( awesome ) The sub frame of the deck had to be straightened with jacks and re- bolted and secured to be level. Some of the 2x10's under the deck were replaced because they looked like rocking chair rockers. I am told this is mainly due to the formaldahyde not being used anymore? I am unsure but I have built a dozen decks in my life and the new type treated wood is a different animal than I have ever seen.

 

[Kspilot]

I've decided that i will splice the warped 6X6's with lamenated posts. I was reading on one of the other posts that there are splice plates available. Now i just need to find that post again.

Jim D.
Kansas

 

[MrSteve]

I am with you... I started work on my pole barn and it took over 6 month to get it done, my post were a mess and to make matters worse, they were 4x6 post. What I ended up doing was using tie down straps, placed here, there and where ever else to make the poles true again, while strapped is when I added my 2x8s to keep everything true. It worked, thank God, because I thought I had a bigger mess that I wouldn't be able to fix. I'll post a few photos for the heck of it.

 

[MrSteve]

And a photo of the inside...

 

[Kspilot]

Now if i could just find out who it was that sold the splice plates. i've been searching for a couple of hours to no avail. If I remember right the plates were 5X18 and i think a quarter of an inch thick.

Jim D
Kansas

 

[two_bit_score]

I am with you... I started work on my pole barn and it took over 6 month to get it done, my post were a mess and to make matters worse, they were 4x6 post. What I ended up doing was using tie down straps, placed here, there and where ever else to make the poles true again, while strapped is when I added my 2x8s to keep everything true. It worked, thank God, because I thought I had a bigger mess that I wouldn't be able to fix. I'll post a few photos for the heck of it.

:thumbsup: congrats!

Looks like everything turned out really well!

 

[beppington]

It's not only the sun that warps them. I have several 2-by's right now that have been in my enclosed barn since I bought them, & they're warped all to h3ll:, just about useless.

I had wondered if laying boards directly on concrete caused warping, due to one side drying at a different rate than the other ... so I've tried instead laying them on little board pieces (up off the floor), laying them on their sides/edges, & even just standing them up on end (all inside my enclosed barn) ... & they can warp a lot in all of those scenarios, too. Extremely frustrating. Only thing I know is to not buy wood until you're really ready to use it.

 

[ragkar]

Slightly off topic reply
Several years ago I needed to mount my satellite dish about seven feet up in order to have a clear line of sight. I chose to create an antenna mast using
an 8 foot 4x4 pressure treated mounted vertically with four guy wires at both the four foot and eight foot level.
After a week I lost the satellite due to the 4x4 twisting. So I fetched a two foot piece of 1x1 angle iron and screwed it on top in a T configuration. Then I ran two guy wires from each end of the angle iron to keep the 4x4 from twisting.
It's worked for nine years now.