Reclaiming pressure treated lumber for outdoor furniture

[mslatter]

My neighbor is replacing his deck top with composite, and just finished removing all the lumber from the prior deck top. He's got no plans for it, and, actually, doesn't know how to dispose of it. Seems to me, it'd serve well for some outdoor furniture. It's about 10 years old, but he took good care of it, so it's already pretty flat and straight. It's got a red stain on the top side I'm not fond of, but I figure I need to mill it square and flat anyway.

Any special considerations?

What about edge gluing pressure treated lumber? I've got plans for a chaise lounge that requires a couple 7 1/2 boards, but I don't think he's got any that wide. I could glue them up, but worry about longevity of such a joint outside.

What about finishing? I'd like to put a long lasting finish on it. I'm thinking spar varnish, but am anxious to hear other's opinion.s

TIA, as always.

[Charles Spitzer]

it's been treated with arsenic. you probably don't want to mill them, nor deal with the hazmat waste.

[patriarch]

[e-mail] ( [e-mail]) wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Ten years ago, pressure treated lumber generally meant some sort of arsenic treatment. Before I used it for furniture, or ran it through my surfacing and cutting tools, I'd at least do a little research.

That's not sawdust & chips I'd throw into the compost pile, at the very least. You may decide differently.

When I put in raised vegetable gardening beds five or six years ago, I paid extra, a lot extra, for good grade redwood (we're in Northern California), so that we wouldn't have the PT leaching problems to deal with. The world offers enough to worry about, without buying more.

Patriarch

[Mark L.]

[Tom]

I did a research paper on P.T. and after 10 years, a lot of the arsenic (but not all) would have leached out into the ground. - However, I would still not want to deal with the contaminated dust, and would just buy some of the new type of P.T.

Tom

[Tom Kohlman]

I'll disagree...inasmuch as the "old" treated lumber was used for years without any adverse health effects that I have ever seen documented, it only lost favor because of our EPA stepping in with their typical "chicken-little" thing...check with the southern yellow-pine association web-site if you want more info on the debate...

...mill it as you please but wash your hands a lot...and just a good rule, apply a good coating of something on any surface that could possibly come into contact with body parts, food or drink.

Moved into a house with a deck that had 20' 2x6 deck boards that were not properly maintained. Not rotten, but "punky" at the top 1/8" or so and the thought of sinking all the nails and sanding down to good wood was not appealing. I tore it off (and replaced with CCA decking boards!!!...I like the look and feel of that 5/4 rounded edge stuff).

Hating to see the old stuff hauled to the landfill, I milled some to make garden benches...planed, jointed and edge glue-up (with biscuits) using Elmer's interior/exterior, followed by a nice round-over with the router. Nothing that produced "fine" dust, rather all rather big chips/shavings. They came out very nice but were allowed to dry in the shop for a few days when the humidity was low and then got a coat of good quality latex house paint before they were moved outside. No sign of checking/warping after two years now and the edge glue is holding up perfectly.

Contrast that success to the same wood used for a mission style cocktail table, same construction for the top with biscuits etc. but moved into the elements immediately after it was done with no paint or protection. A few days (and I mean days, not weeks or months) in the rain and sun will make you sea-sick looking at the top. Guess there was still enough moisture in there after 15 years that only became a factor after milling and not being fastened 16" OC to 2x8 joists. Lucky for me I oversized the top and can make it work.

Good luck

[Buck Turgidson]

Maybe you need to look harder. The Washington Post cited a study in which children who frequently played on PT decks, etc, had a many times higher incidence of childhood leukemia and other types of cancers.

You'll also find the the EPA under Bush has played quite a few games with the wording of regulations, and have eviscerated a lot of the teeth in regs.

[J. Clarke]

Replicated study published in a peer-reviewed journal? If not then it's automatically suspect.

[Richard Clements]

you also have to remember that washington post, in a related article, claimed that PloyVinylCloride shouldn't be used to make children's toys for the same reason. there reason was a study done by the I think it was "voices of responsible science", the same people who went after Lay for there WOW chips, it's all pure FUD,

breathing arsenic isn't good for you, and you really shouldn't eat the sawdust either, on the same note you should work with pine a small unventilated room(turpentine isn't good you you either), the big question is if your using PT why are you milling it? if you mill it your taking way the protectant and your left with pine, just use pine or red wood

[Buck Turgidson]

association

And the info from the So. Yellow Pine Assoc is good? Isn't that like the "dangers of smoking" on phillipmorris.com ?

[Tom Kohlman]

...guess both sides (EPA, Washington Post, S Yellow Pine Assn, Philip Morris.com) all come down to the same thing...in the order of truthfulness, most true is the lie, lesser true is the damn lie, bottom of the cesspool is the statistic. You can make them read to support whatever your end goal is.

[Tom Kohlman]

[kenR]

[Fred the Red Shirt]

Chromated copper arsenate and quite fankly, the chromates worry me more than the arsenic.

[J&KCopeland]

I have built all sorts of outdoor furniture using both CCA and the newer ACQ.

was advised to use the new decking screws with the ACQ because of the possibility of chemical reactions with older steel screws with the ultra high copper content. Other than that, simple common sense prevails.

Don't cut the stuff indoors, (if at all possible) Use a dusk mask. (Ever cut cottonwood? Now that stuff WILL choke you to death ) Clean up debris and sawdust, immediately. (Do not track it in the house, etc....) Don't eat it. (This isn't as silly as it sounds. Young teething children will chew on the damnest things. Exercise appropriate caution) Don't burn it. CCA smoke IS toxic. Don't try to compost the stuff. To start with, the "wood" was designed NOT to break down. And it won't.

NOTE: Will hundreds of millions of people, some are bound to have allergic-type reactions to just about everything but water (maybe).

ACQ wood, according to my source, is rated at 40 or 60 years, full ground contact. Depends on the level of copper. (My source is a salesman, so I wouldn't put a whole lot of stock in him )

I have personally pulled out CCA landscaping ties that were totally buried in the ground for 30 years. In some instances, the steel spikes that were used to nail the ties together, had totally rusted away, but in most instances, the wood was still good and solid.

[Tom Kohlman]

...might be that you have the "new" stuff or old HD/Menards stuff...CCA stuff I'm using I think is at least 15 years old (have to guess because we bought the house in 2001 but think the deck was original to the house based on a number of factors). 20' 2x6 boards still straight as an arrow, just "punky" on the top. Is all still "wet" with treatment when I cut/plane/shape into it.

Have worked with both HD/Menards treated boards in the past and maybe you're right...both tend to buy the heartwood pine which probably doesn't take the "juice" as well even though the "pressure" is the same.