Quality of today's pressure treated lumber

wickman · Sep 20, 2003

Quality of today\'s pressure treated lumber

Hello all,

I've undertaken my first "project" that involves wood. I'm building my daughter one of those wood outdoor playsets. I priced cedar at first but it was way too high so I opted for ACQ pressure treated from Lowe's. I went and hand picked all of the wood (4x4, 2x4 and 2x6). I thought I got some pretty good stuff. It was all wet though. I placed the wood under a tarp in the back yard and pulled out pieces as needed. Well, I've had bits of it playset built for about a week and the wood is starting to dry out a bit. However, all of my 4x4's are splitting in multiple places, the 2x6's are cupping horribly and many 2x4's are splitting clear through. Is this normal? Is this just the poor quality of wood today or did I get a bad batch? I'm making a trip back to Lowe's tomorrow to return quite a bit of lumber and go elsewhere for the replacements. Should I expect better lumber elsewhere or is this just the state of affairs today?

Any tips are much appreciated.

wickman

TonyC · Sep 20, 2003

Re: Quality of today\'s pressure treated limber

In my experience it's a little of both. I have found that when wet it is unpredictable. If you find nice dry pieces that are straight, they will probably stay straight. When they're wet, you never know what's going to happen. Even dry pieces can split and twist but much less often, I think. Unfortunately it's the nature of the beast.

ejb · Sep 20, 2003

Re: Quality of today\'s pressure treated limber

Never shopped at a Lowes (none nearby), but I have noticed the same thing at Home Depot...I can pick thru dozens of rejects before I can find even marginally good wood. (2x4s, 2x6's. 2x8's etc). I, for the most part, stopped shopping at HD unless necessary.

Now I shop at the local lumberyard (6 miles away versus 26), and I accept about 95% of all the lumber I pick...there worst is usually better than the average quality at HD....and the cost is normally very competitive (maybe 5% more?). But what good is saving 5% on the cost of each piece if you can't use 10% of the wood?

I think some of the smart smaller yards, that know they can't compete on price, and trying to make it up with service and quality...2 things HD can never compete on.

See if there is a smaller yard close enough to check out...maybe you can get lucky like I did.

Just curious though...why exactly did you cover all the PT lumber with a tarp ?? /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

wickman · Sep 20, 2003

Re: Quality of today\'s pressure treated limber

I covered the wood with a tarp to keep it from getting any wetter when the rains come....(and they always do). I aslo didn't want the wood to bak in the sun and dry too quickly. I've been coating the wood with a sealer from Flood designed for new pressure treated as I put it up. Unfortunately my sealer hasn't done a bit of good...

wickman

wickman · Sep 20, 2003

Re: Quality of today\'s pressure treated limber

My closest lumberyard is actually a Carter Lumber. I have zero experience with them. Any one else have anything to say about their lumber quality?

Thanks,

wickman

Richard · Sep 20, 2003

Re: Quality of today\'s pressure treated limber

( I covered the wood with a tarp to keep it from getting any wetter when the rains come.. )

Probably irrelevant to your situation, but we built a log house. Upon arrival of the logs to site, we stacked them on the ground (though on top of some 4x4's) AND we put a tarp over them.

Long story longer, we had a lot of settling of the house as the logs dried out. I took some pics to a structural engineer/architect and the upshot.. he said we created some of our problems by covering the wood on the ground. He told me that it would have been better for the rain to HIT the wood (and run off) rather than have a "tent" over the wood keeping all the moisture INSIDE the tent and therefore essentially, saturating the wood.

He told me the best thing we could have done was to get the logs OFF the ground say 5 feet or so, and inside our barn.

Of course, this was 1 1/2 years AFTER we were moved in. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

Richard

chrisjbell · Sep 20, 2003

Re: Quality of today\'s pressure treated lumber

I've been building one of those playsets for about a year. From my daughter's perspective, that has been waaaay too long, but one thing that came out of it is that we bought the lumber and then let it sit for several months. Turned out to be a very good thing - a lot did crack and warp, but when we cut the wood we were able to do so selectively and used the lumber in such a way as to minimize the defects.

Got ours (Douglas fir, which will be painted - any day now, really /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif) at 84 Lumber. The warehouse guys loaded it up but seemed to do a good job picking it.

As far as the newer pressure treatement goes, I don't think that is the reason you're seeing warpage and splitting. The big stores don't carry the best lumber, although they do have good prices. But the older PT stuff (non-PT, too) would do the same - as someone else mentioned it is actually better to let the rain hit a pile of lumber than to cover with a tarp.

Make sure you seal the heck out of that PT lumber, though. The newer stuff is supposed to be much less toxic than the old, but it is still impregnated with chemicals that are designed to kill bugs and rot. You might consider painting it, if the sealant you've used will allow it. But do try to keep the chemicals in the wood and off the kids. If yours are anything like mine, the hands find their way to the mouths all to often /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif...

Bird · Sep 20, 2003

Re: Quality of today\'s pressure treated limber

( Never shopped at a Lowes (none nearby), but I have noticed the same thing at Home Depot )

We have both, in fact, in one neighborhood we have Lowe's and Home Depot right across the street from each other. I really have not found any noticeable difference in the quality of the products either place, but sometimes one has something the other does not, so I've used several different stores of both companies.

One difference I did find is that Home Depot (at least the nearest store to me) will cut treated lumber to whatever lengths you want at no extra charge, while the nearest Lowe's will NOT cut treated lumber at all (they WILL cut untreated).

pruntyc · Sep 20, 2003

Re: Quality of today\'s pressure treated lumber

I understand that a lot of places have stoped using treated wood for playsets and such, as it is poison, and shouldn't be used for that. They also say not to use it for gardens, to make raised beds and such as it will put poison in your food you raise there. It's something to think about, I guess a lot of schools and other places with play grounds don't use it at all anymore. They tore down the ones that were built with it, my son-in-law is a carpenter and he did some of the changeing to other wood for them.

wickman · Sep 20, 2003

Re: Quality of today\'s pressure treated lumber

I've heard that the older CCA treated wood will be banned for residential sale by end of 2004 ( I think). The CCA contains arsenic. One of the newer formulas is called ACQ that doesn't contain arsenic. Now I'm sure that it wouldn't be wise to chew on an treated wood but I'm hoping that that the newer stuff is a little less toxic. BTW - The lumber for my playset in pressure trated pine cost $265. I priced the same lumber in western red cedar at $950.

And there are lots of conflicting reports concerning the toxicity of any pressure treated wood out there. It's hard to find any definitive answer.

wickman