Painting pressure treated lumber

[krw]

I understand the reasoning behind painting all six sides of wood (painting the ends is way too much6 of a PITA) but why Hardi? Doesn't it come primed?

[Dave Balderstone]

Make sure you wear a mask at the other end, too!

[Ed Pawlowski]

I bought mine at

25 boards and hardware to do a 12 x 16 deck was about $1000 delivered. This is what I bought you like wood, this is lovely to look at. I gave it a Penofin oil treatment.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Yeah, but my deck is 8' off the ground and getting the wheelbarrow of concrete up the steps is a bitch.

The framing is PT and is in perfect condition after 25 years. I have a concrete patio under the deck too. The 4 x 4 deck supports are in metal brackets on the concrete.

[Lew Hodgett]

buy from a major long term manufacturer...........

honestly i DONT LIKE WOOD for long term outdoor use.....

concrete doesnt cost that much more and lasts far longer.......

----------------------------------------------- HDPE anybody?

Lew

[Leon]

Hardi may all come primed now but it did not always. It used to come in a cement grey color.

And, I can assure you 90% of Hardi does not get primed on all six sides. Construction crews don't paint the ends after cutting to length. I suspect that caulk will substitute.

[Larry Jaques]

You're probably right, but it's taught in the BEST Continuing Ed class that I just finished yesterday. That very many people do so is fairly unlikely, but the better builders will, and I will in the future. Swingy, what's your company's stance on this?

I already prime cuts in PT because I know the wood will quickly corrupt otherwise. I tried for over a year to find a termiticide/stain on the market but they discontinued it and our gov't, in its wisdom, made it -illegal- to make your own replacement or modify any existing product! I now use a brown deck stain (with mildewcide but no bug killer) on brown PT and you can still buy green-died preservative (I have some Jassco Termin-8 for the green PT.)

Not priming every cut reduces the lifetime of the siding. That's why JH strongly suggests that we do prime it everywhere, back and cuts. If your paint peels and you didn't prime, you're SOL.

-- Never trouble another for what you can do for yourself. -- Thomas Jefferson

[Leon]

Yeah, sorry I did not mean to sound like I was disputing what you said, I agree totally. It just does not happen most of the time. As I mentioned, Hardi gets cut and hopefully if possible it is caulked to cover the newly exposed surface. Still my old next door neighbor had the older unprimed Hardi installed on their house and have yet to paint it at all 6~7 years later, still looks the same. The cement color very closely matched the color of the rest of the house.

[Existential Angst]

Too late. Plus this is stockade fencing, not too many local choices. Basically it looked sturdy and was there. Plus a kind of experimental installation, so I went cheap/convenient, not really planning too much ahead. Turned out pretty well, so now the painting issue.

[Existential Angst]

Might a stain make a good primer for paint?

[Existential Angst]

Appreciate all the varied responses -- a surprising lack of consensus!! But all good perspective on the problem.

If I can ascertain if stain might make a good primer for paint, I'll try that. Altho, perhaps a good way to go would be to just find a suitable stain, spray that on, see how it holds up, and then try painting in a year or two if the stain fades, doesn't hold up, etc..

Someone mentioned painting at 50+ F. Does that apply to stain, as well?? If so, I'll have to sort of trade off drying time with temp, as fall is already here.

alt.home.repair was trimmed from this piece of the thread, but since it was the only ref, I though the ahr people could benefit from it.

==============

mentioned above are not opaque, as paint is. So I would surmise that paint would not be a good coating for new PT wood. ====================

I thought the ".... coated as soon as possible...." was interesting.

So basically I'm going to just give this a shot. My cobbled-up paint sprayer will make this a whole lot easier, that is f'sure.

[Existential Angst]

I put rec.woodworking back in the header, figgered a few would find this useful.

[Ed Pawlowski]

I'd use a solid stain. Durable and less likely to peel. I used in on my deck with good results on the railings and balusters. On the flat portion of the decking, it does not hold up so well with foot traffic.

[Dan Espen]

I put up stockade type fencing made of PT 3 years ago:

part is 2 years older than that.

There is nothing on the wood and it still looks as good as when I built it. I wouldn't dream of painting it, that would be a huge mistake.

[Swingman]

Cut ends need to be primed or painted on the primed product, edge coated on the colored product with the appropriate colored Hardie edge coat. You don't caulk the colorplus product at all, ever.

[HeyBub]

For some time, I understand, they've been making railroad cross-ties out of concrete.

Evidently some believe that concrete will last longer than creosote-impregnated wood...

[Dave]

On Mon, 1 Oct 2012 06:42:19 -0500, "HeyBub"

Some special attribute of this concrete to prevent it cracking from vibration?

[G. Ross]

In Japan they use a rubber pad between the rail plate and the concrete.

[Leon]

Does Hardi edge coat come with the order of colorplus or do you have to know to ask for that product?

On another note, the older Hardi product specifically indicated to caulk the joints, non-primed and non-colored. Do you just leave the joint open now, so to speak?

[Swingman]

There is an edge/touchup kit available from James Hardie, but it is faster to have the color matched with an exterior paint at a paint store.

No, you can caulk the primed product, you just don't caulk their colorplus product at all. It looks funky, and caulk eventually turns a different color than the product after weathering.