treated timber soaked, will it warp?treat dry timber myself?

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I am building timber stud walls round the inside of the stone walls in my under dwelling. These will be insulated and covered with vapour check board. I cannot guarantee that the environment behind the wall will be dry. So I intend to use treated timber, Cost of materials has stopped me using metal studs.

Due to the suppliers storing treated timber outside, its soaking wet. My concerns are:
Will it warp and twist when drying in situ? - wrecking my walls.
Will the remaining moisture in the timbers be trapped behind the wall when I board them? Making the void damp before any moisture has risen up from the walls?

An obvious solution would be to buy untreated timbers and a tub of wood preservative. I am unsure of the effectiveness of this compared to the timber suppliers industrial type treatment.

Any advice/suggestions would be gratefully received.

Thanks
 
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The treated timber you refered to will have been pressure treated (check with your supplier if your not sure) You could not achieve the same level of treatment using paint on preservers.

As for it being wet already don't worry it will not move much more more than it already has.
 
Sorry to disagree with r896neo but the pressure treated timber will most definately move as its moisture content changes. This would not necessarily be a problem unless you are intending to do a fine plaster skim finish to the boards, in which case you will always be getting cracks as the wall moves over time.

I would also worry about your statement that the environment behind the wall might be damp. Vapour check board won't keep this out of the room long term, if the water is coming from outside rather than condensation from inside. If water is coming from the ground through the stone then the only way to create a nice dry room would be to seal the walls properly, but that wouldn't be cheap which is why the victorians realised that cellars would always be a bit damp and the way to deal with it was by maintaining ventilation and being careful about what you stored down there.

Sorry to be a bit gloomy but I don't think there's a cheap solution to what you're trying to do, and treating the timbers yourself is definately not a good idea by the way.
 
Timber of this small section size (50 x 100?) is not going to shrink much as it dries to equilibrium. An insignificant amount in the length and a fraction in the depth.

It will be fixed at the ends and with intermediate noggins, so any attempt to twist or bend will be restrained.

The issue will be drying out when encased, so the timbers should probably be stored in the room or the stud frame built but not covered to allow most of the moisture to dry off, and then the small amount left will gradually evaporate through the wall.

But if the wall is likely to get damp, then a membrane should be used and in this case room dry timbers used or possible use of a breather membrane instead of an impermeable vapour check or DPM
 
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Thank you all for the advice and comments.

I have bought my treated timber and it is stacked inside and drying nicely. The walls will start going up shortly. I will leave the board off till they are dry. I admit I was going to be tight and save a bit by not putting noggins in. They will now go in for some stability.

The damp wall is to the front. Its either rising or soaking in from outside. I think its rising. I understand from the knowledge of people on this forum that chemical dpms in stone walls don't work well. On this wall there is a line of damp across the base. It seems to follow and stop around the line of holes from the chemical treatment??

By a breather membrane, do you mean the sort of thing that goes over roofs before the battens and tiles?

I had considered using this, tanking or using a damp proof membrane. However, I was advised by an architect I contacted for advice to strip the plaster so the walls can breathe better and use vapour board. Although the vapour board was to stop the condensation from the inside out.

If a membrane is needed I do not have the faintest idea where to stop it. There is a false celling. Above it there are no signs of damp. Would the membrane not just push damp up towards the false celling. If I was to remove this and continue it up would it not just push it towards the underside of the stone flag kitchen floor.? When stripping the plaster the signs of damp seemed to stop in the first few feet. The plaster was much harder to strip higher up the walls.. If I have to seal the membrane into the wall should I not just do this a quarter of the way up the wall? The dpm from the floor runs up the wall 3 feet or so, flapping around, already.

I hope the ventilation under the window, via a hole I uncovered in the wall leading to an air brick on the the outside, will help when the walls are up. I had considered filling this but am thinking leaving it and covering it with a mesh to stop wasps etc getting in is a better idea.

Should I put another one in higher up? When patching the hole from an old boiler I noticed a draught travelling from another nearby air brick, higher up the wall, through holes in the cavity to the top. Am I unrealistic to think opening a hole on the inside at the top again would help?

Once again I am lost, being very handy and having picked up the skills to do the job is one thing. I have found out very quickly – having the experience or knowledge to do it properly is another totally different thing. Unfortunately I could not afford to pay tradesmen to do the job. Hence writing here in the hope that some of your knowledge can help. As it has already.
 

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