Decking frame... rip up and start again or carry on?

[Berger3]

Hi all,

I'm building some decking in my garden at the moment and I think I may have made a bit of a school boy error. I'm normally very fastidious when it comes to details but not in this case.

Basically I had (wrongly) assumed if timber was pressure treated then it was automatically suitable for outdoor use and I never bothered to look into this in greater detail.

I purchased timber for the joists described as being Structurally graded C24 and Pressure preservative treated with Tanalith E. As I mentioned I assumed this meant it was suitable for external use.

Upon further reading I have discovered that pressure treated timber is graded for different uses, and I have a horrible feeling the timber I have purchased is more for use in things like lofts where it may come into occasional contact with water, but not to the extent that an outdoor deck would.

So my question is this, do I rip it out and start again? The wood cost about £300 and a day and a half of my time so far.

Or do I stick with what I have and treat the wood with something else to make it last longer? Any suggestions as to what?

....Or as the wood is treated to an extent already, am I overreacting?

 

[motorbiking]

As long as its ventilated and off the ground it should last 10 years as is. The key thing is to preserve your cut ends and this is the easiest place for rot to get in. You could easily add some wood stain, decking stain etc "fence paint" and this will add to the life of the wood.

If you are going to paint/stain your decking then just buy another can (though it is stupidly expensive) and paint the structure too.

 

[Berger3]

As long as its ventilated and off the ground it should last 10 years as is. The key thing is to preserve your cut ends and this is the easiest place for rot to get in. You could easily add some wood stain, decking stain etc "fence paint" and this will add to the life of the wood.

If you are going to paint/stain your decking then just buy another can (though it is stupidly expensive) and paint the structure too.

Thanks for your reply. I had been treating any cut ends with a creosote type wood preservative as I went along as a matter of course, But I then had a little panic attack when I started to read about different grades of timber treatment.

I was thinking that once I’ve fully finished the frame, for my own peace of mind I might spray the whole frame with some wood preservative as well.

 

[Notch7]

If it isnt in contact with the ground and there is ventilation, then you wont have a problem.

I doubt if any carpenters would use anything different for a decking carcase.

 

[bernardgreen]

Paint with Sadolin Classic, used it on the exposed posts and beams of the hosue we built in 1981. has had two re-coats since then and the timbers ( which were Tanalised ) are still in perfect condition. Re-coating is just putting anothe coat, no need to strip off any of the previous Sadolin Where end grain timber is resting on a concrete pad put a piece of lead between post and pad. Trim the lead to the exact size of the post to allow water to drain off the lead.