I accidentally learned a valuable lesson about choosing to use pressure treated wood fence in my yard. If you remember, it was about seven months ago that I put up a new wood fence around my yard.
In case you’re unfamiliar with buying wood or lumber for home improvement projects, let me quickly explain what “pressure treated” wood is.
Here’s his new fence panel and here’s the opening where I’m about to install my wooden fence panel. You can see that the color of our new fence panels matched back in the summer.
Wood is a great building material as long as it stays dry, but if it’s used outside where it can get wet and be attacked by insects and fungus then it generally doesn’t last very long. Sure, you could coat the wood with some sort of preservative or fungicide, but that coating is only on the surface of the wood and doesn’t go much farther down. “Pressure treated” wood is submerged in a tank filled with chemical preservatives and the tank is pressurized, which forces the chemicals deep into the wood itself. The end result is a piece of wood that has been deeply penetrated with chemicals that prevent fungal decay and repels insects for many years. Pressure treated wood costs a little extra when compared to a similar cut of non-pressure treated wood, but it lasts much, much longer when used in outdoor projects.
At the time I was faced two different options for my wood fence that fit my budget: I could have chosen the wooden fence panels that were ornate looking but were not pressure treated, or I could have chosen the pressure treated wood fence panels that were not as fancy and cost just a little bit more.
I have to admit: I almost went with the cheaper option, but at the last minute I decided that I could afford a few extra dollars per fence panel and purchased the pressure treated fencing.
My neighbor choose the cheaper non-pressure treated fence panels.
Same fence shots, seven months later. My pressure treated wood fence still looks brand new, his non treated wooden fence is gray and a looks worn already.
We both installed our new fence pieces within a few days of each other, back in late June. It is now about seven months later and my neighbor’s fence is gray and dingy, while my wooden fence panel still looks almost brand new!
Now, I’m not under the impression that my wooden fence will always look this good. It’s actually UV light from sunlight that turns wood gray, but pressure treated wood seems to turn grey much more slowly than non-treated wood.
There are a few things to remember when working with pressure treated wood:
- Always wear gloves when handling pressure treated wood and always wear a dust mask when cutting it. The chemicals they use are fairly poisonous, so you don’t want to be breathing the dust in. Likewise, you should never burn pressure treated wood because it can give off some nasty gases.
- Be sure to use the correct nails and screws designed for pressure treated wood. Some of the chemicals used are corrosive and can destroy nails and screws if they’re not properly rated for pressure treated wood.
To keep pressure treated wood looking it’s best you’ll want to use some sort of wood protectorant and apply it every couple of years if possible. You can paint pressure treated wood, but for the best results it’s recommended that you actually let the wood age for about a year or so before painting. - Be sure to use the right pressure treated wood for the right job. There are different grades of pressure treated wood, some are approved for simply being exposed to the weather (like my wooden fence panels), some are approved for burial (like fence posts) and some are even rated for prolonged contact with salt water.
Based on looks alone I’d strongly recommend always using pressure treated wood for fencing, decking or any other outdoor product. There are actually a number of different “types” of pressure treated wood that are sometimes referred to with abbreviations such as CCA, ACQ, CBA, etc. These are just abbreviations for the different types of chemicals that are sometimes used.
If you have questions about what type of wood is appropriate for the job you’re doing, just ask the people you’re buying your pressure treated lumber from. Even the employees at those big box home improvement stores should be able to give you a good idea of what kind of pressure treated wood you need for a specific job.
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