is Creosote banned? (2024 Update)

[Thumper]

Is Creosote actually banned, or has it just gone out of fashion because of all the various other woodstains and preservers now on the market?

Ian

[dennis]

Its "banned"(1) as a DIY preservative due to its health problems if not used properly. Add the fact that brushing creosote onto wood doesn't work as a preservative and you get the idea why its "banned".

(1) You can still buy it for commercial use but its a waste of time for most things.

[Huge]

Ah, it's dennis. That'll mean it's a very effective preservative.

[Andy Dingley]

Brushed creosote is a perfectly good way to re-treat wood that was creosoted thoroughly (immersion, vacuum or pressure) originally.

[dennis]

Its not going to affect its life, just its colour.

[Dave]

As a telephone engineer who puts life and limb at risk every time I climb a telegraph pole, I can say that our pole testers regularly have to dig down around the base of the pole to test the integrity of the wood, and they always pour or brush fresh creosote into the test areas when they've finished. They also recreosote the tops of the poles as well and it must work because some of the poles I've climbed are older than me - and I'm 53.

[dennis]

But its not brushed on, its vacuum and pressured into the pole. From what i have seen they get a very deep penetration on those poles which you just don't get with brushed on stuff.

There have been loads of trials of fencing with various treatments and creosoted stuff lasts no longer than untreated stuff. My fencing is now 30 years old and has never been creosoted by me and has only been treated with some stuff to colour it about 25 years ago. Painting it with creosote is a waste of time, just dye it once and forget it.

[fred]

Nonsense. Of course it helps preserve the timber. Stand a cut end of timber into a bucket of creosote for a short while and you will see how the timber soaks it up.

People have been using creosote for years as a wood preservative. What makes you think that you, on the basis of one example, know better.

Paul Mc Cann

[ARWadsworth]

Dennis does not think. It's a well known fact.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember fred saying something like:

It's Dennis, what do you expect?

[chris]

Not sure about the logic and reasoning but you are absolutely correct in the conclusion. True creosote had some 200 odd active and rather nasty ingredients and has been used for donkeys years in the preservation of telegraph poles and railway sleepers until the wretched EC got its ugly grip on our poor country There were no scientific insights as to the precise mechanism of its fungicidal action as for example with CCA but work it did and the proof of that was empircal Treated poles lasted longer than untreated ones by a considerable margin. To be effective it had to be put in under pressure or used with an effective hot/cold immersion system of application

Chris

[chris]

I have worked in the preservation industry for over 35 years, have my PhD in fungal enzymic degradation of timber working on hemicelluloses,have worked in houses for since 1975 on dry rot etc and I have not heard of any such papers. BRE did quite a lot of work in the 60s and 70s on preservatives on panels angled to the sun as well as paints and I do not recall creoste being tested. Lots of work done on posts and sleepers of varying sorts and indeed there was a creosote section of the BWPA before it became the BWPDA and then the PCA. It is now non-existent naturally. I shall be appreciative of the title of such papers and where they were published as it is good to fill any lacunae in one's knowledge and since I do this professionally your input would be most useful Cheers

Chris

[dennis]

So what, bury the end in the ground and it will rot despite the bit of creosote it has soaked up. Next you will be saying its a diy job to pressure treat the timber to actually get the creosote into the wood. BTW if you have such kit you wouldn't waste your time putting creosote on using it when there are so many better products.

Because I haven't been using it for years and the ones that have have had to replace their fences. And the independent tests that are around if you want to look.

[dennis]

Not much chance.. it was about 30 years ago when I read about the stuff and decided creosote was cr@p. I wouldn't know where to look on the internet for them and I didn't keep anything.

I do remember there being a which report that compared creosoted fence with others and it came to the conclusion it did nothing useful when applied by brush ie. useless to diy users.

[Vortex10]

easy to obtain. My local builders merchant stocks it.

[Thumper]

Looking at that webpage, it's not banned, just priced itself out of the market.

[The Other Mike]

"Which report"

I now need a new keyboard you selfish inconsiderate bastard

I'll have a close look tomorrow at my fence that was erected in the spring of 1973, made of 'untreated' off the shelf wood, the ends of the rails and verticals were dipped for a couple of days in a bucket of creosote and the rest just painted with creosote on installation, the whole gets painted with creosote every 5 - 10 years or so and it's still essentially rot free. The only failures in the past THIRTY EIGHT YEARS have been a few dozen nails and the coachbolts holding the rails to the concrete posts were rotting through so they were replaced about five years ago with the light green plated ones that Wickes and Screwfix sell.

I cut a gate opening in it last year and as a consequence shortened some of the rails. I also cut some verticals to see the state of the core. They were near perfect and are currently dumped at the side of the garage awaiting a bonfire. If I could be arsed I'd photograph them and demonstrate how effective creosote is (was)

[ARWadsworth]

So you admit that you are talking bollocks then.

[The Medway Handyman]

You are Count Arthur Strong AICMFP.

-------------------------------------------------------------------- "The Count, now in his old age, has delusions of grandeur. He has selective memory loss, never hearing what he doesn't want to and malapropism-itis, which result in him confusing anyone he happens to be talking to and even confusing himself.

However, he more often than not blames the people he is talking to for causing the confusion in the first place. On the few occasions Count Arthur does realise that it he who is in the wrong, he tries to lie out of his predicament, often unsuccessfully.

A typical conversation for the Count will involve him confusing both himself and others, while becoming drastically sidetracked from the matter in hand. He is usually oblivious to the chaos he causes, often blaming his interlocutors for any confusion.

On the rare occasions he realises he is at fault, he often attempts to divert the blame by lying. Inevitably becoming confused by his own lies, his last resort is usually to claim he was recording a stunt for a hidden camera show."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Has anyone ever seen Dennis & Count Arthur Strong in the same room?

[Huge]

Anything dennis posts can be reliably thought to be completely wrong, ergo creosote is an effective preservative.