Really quick question. I’m laying a new garden deck in my garden. I know I need to treat the cut timbers to seal. Everywhere I Google suggests Hickson Ensele. Is this the best to use? I’m having great trouble getting it local and it seems my only option is from the internet and pay the high postage cost’s. I have been offered a version from Ronseal and was wondering is this as good or should I stick with the Hickson ensele brand?
sealing treated timber
- Thread starter gaz100uk
- Start date
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If it's Ronseal end grain preserver then it'll do what it says on the tin. No need to worry about what to use as most folk don't bother treating their ends anyway.
Although for any timber in contact with the ground it's a must.
Although for any timber in contact with the ground it's a must.
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Pressure treatment is unlikely to go all the way through the timber, so as a minimum you need to be treating any cut lengths on the end grain - to play it safe for the sake of a few quid I would advise sealing the end grain regardless as its by far the most vulnerable part.
wrong. pressure treated wood, is treated in a vacum. the air is drawn out of the wood and the container is flooded with the preservative. This goes through the structure of the wood under pressure.
Don't want to get into an argument here boys & girls, me being a new member and all, but it is an incorrect assumption that pressure treatment protects the whole length of timber.
Even in a vacume, or double vacume (vac-vac process) you are not guaranteed to permiate 100% of the wood - you can only introduce the treatment to parts of the timber that allow it. For example, the denser heartwood of the tree may prove impossible to permiate due to the waste deposits that are already in the fibres of the wood physically preventing it. This leaves all wood vulnerable when reworked, and the end grain inparticular. This is why the majority of treatment providers will advise the use of a cut end preservative, and will also advise against the reworking of a peice without doing something similar.
If you still need convincing let me know and I will dig out some factsheets from work.
Even in a vacume, or double vacume (vac-vac process) you are not guaranteed to permiate 100% of the wood - you can only introduce the treatment to parts of the timber that allow it. For example, the denser heartwood of the tree may prove impossible to permiate due to the waste deposits that are already in the fibres of the wood physically preventing it. This leaves all wood vulnerable when reworked, and the end grain inparticular. This is why the majority of treatment providers will advise the use of a cut end preservative, and will also advise against the reworking of a peice without doing something similar.
If you still need convincing let me know and I will dig out some factsheets from work.
I drove my car for 15 years without putting any oil in, it still got me to work and back every day - doesn't make me right though.
D
dextrous
I suppose part of the theory behind this is that it assumes that water penetration will also only be able to get so deep easily, and the preservative will kill off the bacteria en-route anyway. After all, clean water in itself can't rot anything (sort of basing this on sunken timber shipwrecks), although I'm happy to be corrected on this.
Not entirely sure I understand your point, but basically the treatment process 'packs out' the voids in the structure of the wood and forms a physical barrier stopping any other foreign bodies permiating it. The point here is that the vacume process can only suck out air where there is a void in the structure of the wood and replace it with the preservative treatment - in the sapwood (outside of the log) this is easy as there is lots of 'gaps', but in the heartwood (centre of the log) there is less 'gaps' due to this being the part of the tree where the denser waste cells are stored.
You may get a peice of softwood that is 100% sapwood - so basically lots of 'space' - the vacume sucks out the air from the space and fills with treatment chemicals - these peices will not need the ends sealing. But the chance of you getting 100% softood is slim to nil so why take the chance.
Hope I have explained in reasonable terms, will try to explain further if anybody is interested (I used to run a merchant with a vacvac tank!).
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