new product Creocote wood preserver

running

No idea if 'Creocote' is any good, but the original 'Creosote' is still available to professional users, and an adequate 'Creosote Substitute' is available from Wickes - if fact I have a man applying it here as I type!

AWEM

In message , Andrew Mawson writes

I have some original creosote and some of the replacement stuff (bought just after they banned the original). They look and smell the same. Just what IS the difference?

Ha. Ditto. Only difference that I can spot is that the price went up

Not that I'm cynical :-)

John

p.s. to the OP, John Morgan: Yes, in my humble opinion creocote is just as good as creosote.

Jj.

Quite a lot if you do a test with the two, on the same bit of wood, and leave it outside in the rain and sun for 18months. I will post a picture of one i did tomorrow.

I look forward to seeing it. But would I be correct in guessing that the new stuff isn't a patch on the old?

I cannot say but as the old stuff was a by product of town gas plants ( the product of thermal destructive distillation) and contained phenolic compounds which were long lasting toxins...

I do know that life of fencing products has been drastically cut since the newer copper organic salts were used.

AJH

I suspect that all the "goodness" has been taken out of the old creosote!

That's very revealing.

Of course, it may be that colour is not a good indicator of resistance to rot. Some of the other wood preservatives are crystal clear.

indeed that could be true, but somehow i don't think so.

Which is part of what made it effective of course. What you really want is something that's a long lasting toxin to anything that might attack wood, but not toxic to some handwavy value of "the environment in general". It's not surprising that finding something that's good on both measures isn't easy.

I would say it's impossible! I guess it's the toxicity which kills the micro-bugs which are responsible for the deterioration of the wood. Unfortunately, the same micro-bugs are needed to keep nature working. The best compromise must surely consist of allowing the toxins to do their job, but that the preservative stays in the wood, and doesn't wash out or leach into the surroundings.

I understand that used engine oil, thinned with paraffin (or even creosote), is a pretty effective preservative. I suppose that that too would be frowned upon these days. Unfortunately these days, few people service their own cars (I don't), so the ready availability (and disposal) of used oil is a problem.

Yes

The other point is that town coal gas plants don't exist anymore and I doubt the ones making smokeless coal bother with condensing distillate. So latterly creosote comes from oil and I wonder if that id treated to the temperatures that change linear molecules to benzene rings. I'm assuming its the phenolic compounds that inhibit fungi and kill bacteria. I think that fungi are by far the major contribution to wood rot.

I'm told that utility poles are back with pressure treated creosote after cca was banned and the copper organic salt not deemed long lived enough. It will be interesting to see how the new wooden sleepers ( still used on bridges) fair.

AJH

Used to get the real creosote pickle for railway sleepers. Burned like heck and still have "tattoo"40 years later, but the shed is as black as ever an d the wood originally from a railway booking office floor is still as hard as the day the shed was built 50 years ago. Sadly all modern additions have had to be done in modern stuff and are already fading and losing protectio n after only 3 years.

Progress what!!!

As for the toxins leeching when putting up fence post we used to wrap in HD Polythene to stop it, also helps when fence needs moving just slide out. A nd yes the fence stood up to 1997 tornado through Suffolk!!

sorry meant 1987 tornado. 1997 was wife in a mood shed even withstood that

I know I know. I don't actually remember anyone saying there were mounting bodies due to this substance or indeed massive wildlife loss. What exactly was the problem with it? When you buy treated timber it seems to me that the treatment goes in only a little way, However some of the older treated timber I can recall when I could see and you cut it, you could see it a long way inside the wood. Brian

That would be pressure treated. Eg telegraph poles.