Quality of today's pressure treated lumber

[Alan L.]

Re: Quality of today\'s pressure treated lumber

I've never had any luck with treated lumber. They always end up twisted and warped, and its nearly impossible to have good results.

We recently spent a whole Saturday putting up treated 4 by 4 fence posts. After a few weeks they are twisted and crooked and the fence looks like heck, while they were perfectly plumb and straight when we set them. The fence belongs to my sister-in-law and I have advised her to complain to Lowes about the monetary damage this crap has caused.

 

[Hoosier_Daddy]

Re: Quality of today\'s pressure treated limber

You might check that can of Flood Product because they usually suggest waiting a year before applying to PT wood.

I bought all my Deck wood at a Furrow Store before they went out of business. 90% of it was great. The rest was junk.

My neighbor rebuilt a deck last spring and most of the PT wood was junk.

What a shame. Probably all the good stuff is going over sea.

Tom

 

[_RaT_]

Re: Quality of today\'s pressure treated lumber

Back to your original post. Your situation is not a result of treated lumber, it is a result of smaller trees being utilized to make the lumber we use. With smaller trees, cupping and warping are inevitable. You really need to understand growth rings to purchase lumber. Selecting what you perceive to be a straight piece of lumber at any lumber is a far cry from the end result. When selecting lumber, finding a piece with vertical grain is your quest. You will not get veritical growth, but the closer you get to it, the better. Vertical growth is most desireable and the most stable. When looking at a piece of lumber, anaylze it by the grain direction. For example, on a 2x4, you are hoping to get grain that goes up and down across the full 3 1/2". Your lucky to get it at a 45 degree, but even that is going to be a decent cut. The problem is, we harvest much smaller trees and with good reason, thats what we have. Here in the West, lumber trucks once carried 3 trees per load, today it is about 10 to 15. There are many alternatives such as laminated veneer lumber which is very stable and quite costly. For outdoor projects, Trex and other products are becoming very popular and for good reason, they are very stable and very expensive. Any high stability product is going to be. Here in California where much of the redwood lumber is cut, we use the various alternatives almost exclusively anymore. Rarely are decks made of redwood anymore, it's just to much work/cost getting good lumber. The alternatives like Trex are great alternatives. Much has been said in the construction circles about the quality and stability of todays lumber, it sucks, but the new alternatives offer great choices whether its Glulams, Parralams, Laminated Veneer Lumber, metal studs and the synthetics like Trex. With lumber, you will pay for stability, its the way things are. Rat...

 

[Gary_in_Indiana]

Re: Quality of today\'s pressure treated lumber

The problems of getting wet, warped and twisted lumber sure aren't restricted to to treated lumber. When I have to order lumber and have it delievered instead of picking out my own I up my needed amounts by 50%. Sometimes that gets me through, sometimes it doesn't but at least I know I stand a chance then. I just return the unused when the project is done.

 

[TWINKLE_TOES]

Re: Quality of today\'s pressure treated lumber

Good Post Rat

 

[AndyR]

Re: Quality of today\'s pressure treated lumber

Excellent post RaT. One more thing to add to the issues. In the latest issue of The Journal of Light Construction (JLC), an article points out that the ACQ treatment for the "new" PT is highly corrosive. Simpson Strong-Tie, the major name in the hardware end of things, recommends hot-dipped galvanized as a minimum and stainless steel hardware if at all possible. Apparently the formula needs some fine tuning but it could take the EPA months to get that done. I'm just starting on the rebuild of a big porch and am going through all of these issues myself. Gonna' be using Epoch by Evergrain (like Trex but better) but still dealing with PT joists underneath. Now if I can only find a good source of white oak cheap....

 

[TWINKLE_TOES]

Re: Quality of today\'s pressure treated lumber

Andy,

Now if I can only find a good source of
white oak cheap....

"Woodmills1" posted acouple of years back that he had a lot of Oak and was planning on setting up a dry kilm. I think he lives in Hudson NH.
Might be worth a shot to check with James

 

[wickman]

Re: Quality of today\'s pressure treated lumber

Thanks for the great tips. I took a second look at the lumber I bought and now see what I overlooked. Most of the 2x4's and 2x6's are cut from the center of the tree. It appears that I'm getting splits along that center. And they tend to cup more. Am I correct in my assumption?

Also, does any know of any web sites that go over lumber selection possibly with pictures?

thanks,

wickman

 

[_RaT_]

Re: Quality of today\'s pressure treated lumber

Andy, now you have me curious about this Epoch by Evergrain. At last count, there were over 23 different manufactuers of substitue wood products. Rat...

 

[chrisjbell]

Re: Quality of today\'s pressure treated lumber

I tried to find a good article that focused on selecting wood. I found a lot of stuff that mentioned the subject, and there are some with pictures but nothing that was all about wood selection.

Try diynet.com - they had a lot of mentions about the subject. A Google search will give you endless links (I searched on "selecting lumber" and "choosing lumber"). I'm sure its out there somewhere...