Using treated wood for Workbench project
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6 December 2017 at 3:32 pm #395176
I’m a complete novice feeling both daunted and excited about starting on this project. I have negligible experience buying wood let alone working it. I live in UK and over on his blog Paul recommended Homebase as a possible source for the timber. Sure enough my local store has ample stock of untreated cheap softwood in 38x63mm (approx 1.5 x2.5in) which I think would be OK for the benchtop laminate and 38x89mm ((say 1.5 x 3.5in) which could be laminated to make aprons and legs and trimmed down a bit to make bearers.
However nearly all the other sawn timber in the store is marked as treated, including the stuff I’d probably need to make the wellboard and the rails. Aside from it being a bit more expensive (I could live with that) are there any other issues I should watch for?
I want to get my wood delivered as my car wouldn’t be ideal for getting this stuff home so I’m hoping to get the whole lot from one place if possible.There are many reasons to avoid treated lumber, in my opinion. At least in the US, it is almost always offered for sale extremely wet. It would take a long time to become dry enough for joinery and I would expect large amounts of twisting, cupping, and checking. The chemicals used for treating the wood affect (corrode) most fasteners, so you oughtn’t use normal wood screws, nails, or other common hardware. For example, if you are hanging treated lumber on a wall below grade, you cannot just pound in regular cut nails, but must find ones listed as suitable for treated lumber. I have no idea how the chemicals will react with glues and common finishes. Finally, the wood is impregnated with toxic chemicals. I would not want to fill my shop with dust and shavings from that wood. When I must work with it, e.g., for something in contact with a surface below grade, I cut it outdoors and then bring it back indoors.
- This reply was modified 6 years, 4 months ago by Ed.
In my experience, its very difficult to buy real wood of any type/size in the UK. I’ve used a large timber merchant to buy small offcuts, but they couldn’t supply a sheet of plywood. You have no-chance getting wood for a Mallet, a Fly-Swat, or Winding Sticks.
The focus in the big-box stores (B&Q, Wickes, Homebase) is on pre-treated fencing materials. No good for anything except perhaps a dog-kennel. If you want mahogany or oak, they’ll point you to small oak Newel Posts @ £55 each, or some twisted beading strips. Travis Perkins are limited; Pine planks & roofing-struts, or nothing.
Paul went to B&Q for his Wallclock project, but you have to find a B&Q Superstore, not the regular depots. Paul’s Blog on buying wood in the UK suggests looking online first.
I’d try 1) Travis Perkins, 2) B&Q Superstore 3) Timber Merchant 4) Wood Reclamation Yard.
Some links to decent suppliers wouldn’t go amiss. We’re all running-around trying to source the same material, for the same project. Perhaps an opportunity for a timber merchant to tap-in to this marketplace, running-off multiple quantities on their machines, selling them mail-order?
6 December 2017 at 11:14 pm #395696Thanks to both of you. I wondered initially if treatments might differ between UK & US. The reference to wood being ‘wet’ troubled me as the stuff in my local store seemed dry enough….though I guess this is a relative reference. As a matter of interest, if someone had access to a moisture gauge what kind of reading is regarded as viable for woodwork projects? I like info I can quantify wherever possible 🙂
But it seems from Alan’s post that the stuff in UK stores is largely not fit for purpose so time to think again. Maybe I could laminate everything for this build from the two sizes I found?I’m curious what “treated” means in the UK. In the US, it means “pressure treated,” which is a process for putting chemicals that inhibit or kill organisms into solution and then forcing that solution into the wood under pressure. Often, the wood will have a slight greenish appearance afterwards. Your first impression may be that it is dry, but if you touch it, it will feel cool or clammy, which is from the moisture. Of course, it eventually dries out, leaving the wood impregnated with the chemicals, but most treated lumber in the home centers is sold quite wet.
‘Treated’ in the UK is the same – ‘pressure treated’. The wood’s stacked in a kiln (like a giant pressure-cooker) and pressurised to force preservation chemicals deep into it. Like creosote, but deeper.
‘Wet’ is the term for newly-cut wood that hasn’t dried-out yet, either air-dried or in a drying-kiln. That’s when a moisture-meter’s used. No need to worry about a moisture-meter for stuff in your standard retail depots. You can be pretty sure all wood in depots/yards has been kiln-dried. It should all be ‘dry’.
Check for the absence of preservation colours as Ed says, they’re often greenish but sometimes brown/blue. Pine for e.g. should be its regular pale white colour. You can smell the pine. If its it untreated, it smells like, pine air-freshener!
Don’t let me put you off finding the right stuff at Homebase, B&Q, Travis Perkins etc. (I went off at a bit of a tangent there. Still peeved at the lack of choice anywhere in the UK. I was looking for mahogany & oak. Our American cousins enjoy Birdseye Maple, Walnut, Tiger striped…)
The cheap, untreated, softwood (pine) you’ve already found at Homebase sounds fine. See Paul’s Wallclock (Episode 1) for how he chooses wood in the store. Just pick out the better bits, with no splits, fewest knots, and minimal warp.
Check-out the comments in the workbench project. Someone else is laminating to create the size needed for the legs. If you want pieces thicker than Homebase, try Travis Perkins. They cater for the building trade, so they may have flooring joists, or roofing struts. That’s when you’ll need to make sure you don’t get ‘treated’ wood, such as fencing posts.
You could have most of your wood delivered by Homebase, and if you go elsewhere for larger bits for the legs, put them in your car. They’re the shortest of the lot.
7 December 2017 at 9:41 pm #396466I’m going to avoid the treated timber. I read some stuff online about different levels of treatment in UK and how the timber is marked accordingly – leading me to believe that perhaps some treatments are reasonably benign but as I said initially, I’m a novice and it seems a risk not worth taking.
I’d already planned to laminate the legs as well as the aprons and the benchtop but I see no reason not to laminate the rails too which means I can do it all with the untreated material. I guess it means a bit more work but this is about the process and the experience as much as the result so that’s OK. It just leaves the wellboard material to find. Pretty sure I’ll find a way to get that home when I can find something suitable.
Shame though that it’s this difficult to buy even the most basic materials 🙁
Thanks again to those who responded.I wouldn’t recomend treated wood for any project that you will be touching. The chemicals used are nasty and can cause health problems with prolonged exposure. If your going to set your bench on the ground you might use preasure treated for the legs but not the top or approns.
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