Exterior Chipboard - Toxins?`

On Tue, 5 Oct 2004 20:52:55 -0400, "Bill Stock" calmly ranted:

Probably a combination of glue and formaldehyde smell. Loverly, wot?

Ah, Herring brine.

I should have been more specific. This stuff is exterior grade OSB. Not MDF, particle board or 'Flake Board'. We always called it Chip Board as a kid, but this stuff seems denser than the stuff I remember. Doesn't seem furry like the stuff I remember either. It's kind of a greenish yellow with a yellow sealant around all four edges.

According to the generic blurb I read, it's not a significant source of formaldehyde. Man, I wouldn't want to meet the super rat they tested it on; it sure does stink. I'll have to pull the manufacturing code and get the straight poop.

You smelled the plastic pool covers on a warm day?

Any information you find would be for humans. Last I heard, asthma wasn't a big piscine problem....

Formaldehyde or phenol runoffs are a _big_ problem for fish. They're far more sensitive than we are.

I used to live in Newcastle Upon Tyne. Every so often the Egger plant in Hexham would have a spill and de-piscilate the whole upper Tyne.

And just why would a cover run off anywhere but outside the pond? And are your chemical plants just a _touch_ less dilute than fumes?

Oh well, you have a f>

Fish are a lot like birds, very sensitive to environmental toxins. Chlorinated drinking water will kill them, while it's "safe" for humans.

Thanks Andy. I think I'll wrap this contraption in plastic to help prevent leaching.

"Bill Stock" wrote in news:LpmdncSwsceGn snipped-for-privacy@rogers.com:

Maybe a shellac-based primer first?

No. Run off near a pond tends to run into it. Certainly does the way I've built most ponds, with a butyl liner and its edges buried beneath the border turf to hide it.

We're not talking about fumes, we're talking about rain run-off. I wouldn't know that (or like to guess it) without measuring, but it's certainly within the bounds of possibility.

I'd probably use plywood as a pond cover, and with some reasonable attempt at weatherproofing I wouldn't worry about it. But I wouldn't drop offcuts in the pond, and I wouldn't use suspect timber to make any sort of pond-adjacent structure. If I do pond-pilings, I use larch or chestnut, and I wouldn't even be too sure about the larch if it were a koi pond.

You mean fish _other_ than carp/koi/goldfish? They're air breathers, which is why they can live in such polluted waters. Now trout would be a different matter.

It doesn't make sense not to cover the lid with an impermeable barrier. That, and vertical installation is what it's designed for. Also, a few days in the open air rather than stacked one upon the other will allow a good outgas. The other presumption is that you have a grade sloping _away_ from the pool so that the really toxic stuff like lawn chemicals won't have free run in. Extend your cover out enough so its drip line is out there.

Actually I bought the OSB to cover the Styrofoam. :)

I had some bird netting on to keep out the leaves, but the neighbour has a honey locust and the damn small leaves pass right through. So I made a 2x4 frame, strapped it every three feet and covered it with door screen. I plan to use the same frame for my winter cover, by stuffing it with Styrofoam and covering it up with NOT OSB.

I'm in Zone 5 and the water in my puddle is only 2' deep, so it could freeze pretty deep. I plan to use a small heater to keep the bottom of the pond around 40F (hibernation temps). But without the cover the heating bill would be a killer.

Andy,

Will exterior grade plywood be OK or does it contain toxins too?

It certainly contains them - the question is whether they're going to run out of it if you have rain on it, and in what sort of quantity. For plywood I doubt it - there's just much less glue in there, compared to chip- or fibreboards. I'd use plywood quite happily, but I never use chipboard outdoors for anythign more than short-term shuttering.

I've asked my tame chemist to try and find some likely numbers for formaldehyde from sheetgoods. Although he's a bit busy at present, cleaning mercury out of toilets and sending tellurium off for disposal. What shocking things they get up to in waste disposal - I've never even seen any tellurium.

Actually I bought the OSB to cover the Styrofoam. :)

I had some bird netting on to keep out the leaves, but the neighbour has a honey locust and the damn small leaves pass right through. So I made a 2x4 frame, strapped it every three feet and covered it with door screen. I plan to use the same frame for my winter cover, by stuffing it with Styrofoam and covering it up with NOT OSB.

I'm in Zone 5 and the water in my puddle is only 2' deep, so it could freeze pretty deep. I plan to use a small heater to keep the bottom of the pond around 40F (hibernation temps). But without the cover the heating bill would be a killer.

Thu, Oct 7, 2004, 12:21am snipped-for-privacy@privacy.net (Bill=A0Stock) says: I'm in Zone 5 and the water in my puddle is only 2' deep, so it could freeze pretty deep. I plan to use a small heater to keep the bottom of the pond around 40F (hibernation temps). But without the cover the heating bill would be a killer.

Fascinating. Did you know that some fish (Hell, maybe all of them, for all I know about it) have the ability to be frozen, then go right along with their lives when thawed? Be an interesting experiment, see how many survive.

Heater? How about a bubbler instead. They use 'em to keep ice from forming around moored boats. Simple enough to whip one up.

But, what I'm really wondering is, if you cover the pond up, with fish in it, where's their supply of new oxygen gonna come from, once they use what's there? I'm thinking a cover would make it sort of a sealed environment, with only X much oxygen. That's supposed to be why they change the water in fish bowls, that don't have air pumps.

Or are you talking about a cover not resting on the water?

On the other hand, if it's only carp and/or goldfish, I wouldn't worry about it.

JOAT I smile because I know my God loves me. You on the other hand, he doesn't much like.

Damn, just as soon as I hit the send button.

Remembered, when I was a kid in MI, a family had an outside pond. Dunno how deep, but believe me, it would have frozen solid even if it was 4 feet deep. They had a simple solution to the fishy problem. They netted the fish in the fall, kept them in the house all winter, presumebly in a tank, not the bathtub, and put them back out in the spring. No prob.

JOAT I smile because I know my God loves me. You on the other hand, he doesn't much like.