Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire just me or is Yellawood not the same.....

as the treated lumber of past?

local hardware store only sells Yellawood brand treated lumber,

Doesnt have the green tint or heft to it as old treated lumber. Skeptical as to its long term durability.

Must be new age tree hugger friendly ingredients.

I have some Yellawood landscape 4X4s that have rotted away in less than a year.

thats what i figured.

there was a recent wsbtv.com article on privacy fences that needed the posts replaced pretty quickly, maybe ten years?

anyways, the interview carried a local fence installer. lot's of discussion when it comes to a long-lasting trtmnt for SYP pressure trtd lbr.

'treated lumber' used to be copper chromium arsenate

now, it's mostly "ACQ" alkalyne copper quarternary

(not sure of any of the spelling as I'm not Capn Cut n Paste)

the latter supposedly is more health friendly or some bullchit, however it will create a galvanic corrosive situation with dissimilar metal fasteners unless extra heavy hot dipped galvanized are used I think (so many microns thickness)


but....if you're using your treated timbers for rafter applications, you can still special order the CCA treated, so you can put galvalume metal roofing and screw fasteners on




the other situation is with 'ground contact' they used readily sell a choice of .40 rated or .25 rated chemical treatment. I know the .40 was more rated for actual ground contact....but good luck most lumber is marketed to unknowing joe blow the rose bush planting weekend warrior. So now the latter .25 is almost all that's available at the big box lumber giants.


now if you really spec it out, you can order .60 or .80 or more for actual water contact like dock and pier construction


.25 is essentially garbage and that's what the consumer demands nowadays...cheap garbage for their weekend doghouse projects and birdhouses and doo-dads


hope this helps

I'll wave the BS flag on this

4x4 is still a pretty good chunk of wood, hard to imagine it just "rotting away in less than a year"

hell even an untreated sheet of plywood laying on the ground will last a year here in Moldville TN


here's a link to a warranty from Yellawood, you should pursue a warranty claim if by some fluke you got a bad production run

http://www.greatsouthernwood.com/GSWPCMS/uploadedFiles/MCAWarr0309-ltr.pdf


I know you've got me on your little "Ignore" so you just miss out

Yep what he said...
I will add that a smart man specs the .60 or .80 in posts for pole buildings in my area. If not, replacement is in your near future.

Did not konw about the different specs, will remember that if I ever build a short pier into the pond at the house.

slumlord's info is about spot-on.

If you read the tags on the ends of the timbers, you will normally find that the so-called "ground contact" rated material is the square pieces; (4x4, 6x6, 8x8, etc)

Most of the dimension lumber; (2x4, 2x6, 2x8, 2x10, and 2x12) stock is only rated for "above ground" use.

The in-ground material is treated to about double the density of the above-ground material.

The consumer grade "in-ground" timbers are normally treated to a density of .40 PCF, and as slumlord pointed out, a density of .60 or .80 PCF would last much longer.

I don't know how many places will order the heavier duty material, but I found a place in Ohio that will still produce the old style CCA material on special order. It is supposed to be only permitted for agricultural or industrial use.

Myron

bought some yellawood 2x8x16 to replace deck on my trailer, see how long it lasts.

If yer hands air sticky after ya pick it up, it ain't treated.

The only time I used Yellawood, I thought it split and checked from sun faster than anything I have ever used. I won't use it as long as I can find something else.

deerhunter5555,

Where do people get the .60 or .80 grade treated material?

Will Lowe's, Home Depot, or Menards order that grade for people or do they have to go to a special source for it?

Myron

The older CCA held up better, but it was also nasty stuff. I don't think it was an environmental thing as much as a personal health/safety issue.
It had arcenic in it, so breathing the dust day in and day out is obviously bad for you.
I heard stories of guys' hands getting really ate up from it too, but nothing to substantiate that.
I did a big project during the big switch to ACQ. It was all still green then. At the time, there was very little fastner support for ACQ. Basically, nobody knew what you were talking about when you asked for stainless, or hot dipped galv fasteners, or brackets, or bolts...
Of course now, the right stuff says "ACQ compatible".
Hard to believe that a chemical combination that'll eat through anchor bolts would be better for ya!!!

I can't say I've ever really read up on the yellawood.
Are you sure it's an ACQ product, because I'd heard ACQ was on it's way out too.

Duckdog,

I did a lot of reading on this subject when it all changed from the CCA treatment.

I don't think there was any evidence from the EPA or CDC, etc. that CCA material had ever harmed anyone. The ban on CCA was "voluntarily" agreed to by the manufacturers and the EPA instead of standing up to the bullies.

The whole fiasco was created by some professional agitators in search of a cause, and the rest of us are paying the consequences it terms of more expense for the materials to build anything.

Myron

Wow, I just did a little reading and it looks like you're right!
They've even done tests since then and concluded the first reports weren't accurate.
And, from what I read on the yellawood site, it's not ACQ, but some type of preservative process they describe as "the first environmentally friendly preservative", but they still recommend stainless or hot dipped fasteners.

Duckdog,
This has been a sore spot for me for many years, From what I have read, the whole thing was started by some "soccer moms" who just happened to notice the part that said "arsenate" after all those many years when it was the accepted treatment.

They saw it as an opportunity to agitate for their "cause", and it screwed up the acceptable use of a common material which was more effective and less expensive than the alternatives.
The treatment chemicals seem to be a moving target, as there have been several versions tried with questionable success.

I don't know how accurate the dire predictions of fastener failure were, but I put out a sample of the "above ground" material with many types of screws in it, and could see no difference in the amount of rust or corrosion after a year of exposure to the weather. Maybe the heavier treated "ground contact" material would have produced different results.

Myron