Hi:
I am a total newbie when it comes to building. I bought some plans for a deck (eventually a gazebo), spent $$$ on tools, and also spent several hundred $$ on PT lumber at Home Depot this spring. (Mostly 2x6, 2x8 and 4x4's.) The guy at HD said I should let the lumber get air and dry for a couple months before using it. (It was soaking wet.) So I put nails in the ends and vertically suspended all the boards from the ceiling of my garage, with lots or air around each board. A couple weeks ago I started......and stopped. The wood is warped, in all 3 dimensions. Some badly, and some just a little.
Obviously I did something wrong. So I found this group, and hope that some of you could give me some guidance. First, are there some websites that give good, detailed info on the selection and use of PT wood? Secondly, here are a couple of basic questions. Did I let it dry correctly? Or should I have used it while it was still wet? Is there any way to get the wood to bend back into shape? All my joists will be double 2x8's. I just used some heavy-duty clamps to force the ends of 2 pieces of 2x8's back together , but it looks like the wood will crack/split if I try to go any further along the lengths of the boards.. Even if the wood doesn't split, how should they be fastened, and will the fasteners hold after I release the clamps? My brother-in-law said to use long deck screws, but they look awfully weak, and so I was thinking of using 3/8 s.s. bolts with s.s. fender washers next to the wood. But all this is based on the wood not cracking/splitting, and I have a hunch that it is going too once I start moving down the length of the 2 boards..
As I said, I am a newbie. Any basic info on PT wood would be __much__ appreciated, as would pointers to any lengthy discussions/primers on pt wood on any websites.
Thanks for any help you can provide.
dave