Rotting deck, porch, or piazza

[Oldpath05]

borax wood treatment and Tim-Bor<<< Well that sounds interesting, I'll check that out while I'm looking around............

 

[CCWKen]

Wood Protection and Biocides

This is an interesting read but no mention of formulation or mix ratio.

I bought the useless treated 2x4s to make a gas can locker outside. I was planning on using the 2x4s to lift the "box" off the ground and for framing.

If anyone finds a mix formula for applying the Borax, please post.

 

[Cord]

$$$$$$$That's the number one problem why nothing gets done right at my house including the house, number two is the lack of know-how.
Your brother-in-law must think that, one's mans trash is another mans treasure, and it's great to take kids to the dump and bring everything with a motor, that way the kids get to tare it apart and see how thinks work, you know when kids have gotten smarter when they can put the stuff back together with no extra parts.

I'm in total agreement with the skills they have learned. It's just that a lot of this stuff is junk. Had to rototill the mother-in-laws garden this spring and he brought over his new tiller. He was rather proud of the unit that he had found in the dump. It certainly looked nice with new paint. Well, the spray can rebuild didn't hold up. Thing wouldn't stay running, but when it did the thing blew smoke and the belt slipped horribly. We parked the tiller and turned the garden by hand.

As for not knowing how to do something, well, that's life. Often people will ask me "Where'd you learn to do that?" Well, nobody taught me, I either learned by mistakes or I read forums like this and learn from other people's mistakes.

 

[Cord]

One of the few things left we can treat wood with is borax. There is a commercial product called Tim-Bor used to treat wood, or you can mix up a solution of good old 20 mule team Boraxo and soak the wood in it.

Do a Google search for "borax wood treatment" or similar and you will find lots of information.

Now, the boron compounds are water soluble, so I would be inclined to treat the wood, let it dry and then cover it with tar paper or metal flashing to protect it from having the borax dissolved out in the rain.

This is cheap and reasonably effective.

The borates are really good at killing boring insects (carpenter ants, termites, powderpost etc), but are not effective enough for wood in contact with the ground (rot). It's great for wood above ground in a sheltered location. After that you need cedar, treated, exotic or composit lumber. The problem with the borates is getting the product to penetrate into the wood. Spray it on the surface and it's only a topical treatment. Soaking is better, but it still does not penetrate to the core. Cutting or drilling the lumber after treatment exposes the untreated wood. Pressure treating helps, but even pressure treated lumber bigger has trouble fully penetrating limber bigger than a than 4x4.

 

[Oldpath05]

Wood Protection and Biocides

This is an interesting read but no mention of formulation or mix ratio.

I bought the useless treated 2x4s to make a gas can locker outside. I was planning on using the 2x4s to lift the "box" off the ground and for framing.

If anyone finds a mix formula for applying the Borax, please post.

That's what I want to know, I'm not a fan of guess-by-gosh..., might go with the pre-mixed/made Tim-bor concoction.

 

[Oldpath05]

The quick-ish fix for this year, got some cadar 2x8"s to double up on a few joist sitting on the steps,

<< Before the end floor joist gets in place, I had to spend 6 un-planed hours on the corner ledger board, 15'' back one way, 4' back around the other way, replace with double layered cedar boards. Next was the front beam that's on the trailer, now I have to put some tar paper on that, double up the joist and lower it back down on the beam, sure up the railings, save the rest for next year.

 

[ultrarunner]

Quite a useful trailer you have... with the hoist and all.