Buck board wrap

[block]

What is the best thing to wrap the pressure treated buck boards with to keep them from the moisture of a window that might condensate a lot ?

[TnAndy]

Well, you could wrap it with aluminum trim coil stock bent on a brake as I have done a lot of, even though on most brands of coil now it says in big letters right on the box "Not for use over treated lumber"....ahahahaaaaa

But I guess my question would be:

WHY are you gonna get the condensation in the first place ? Are you talking like a cheap aluminum windows with no thermal break in the frame that sweats in the winter like an iced tea glass on the summer ? Well, heck.....that's easy.....don't use the crappy things.

In your other post, you were talking vinyl windows. They won't do that. You "may" get a little condensation on the glass near the edges, but you won't even get that if you use the glass with the "warm edge" spacers AND your interior humidity is somewhat less than a greenhouse.

If you're only talking an occassional moisture on the lumber, I flat wouldn't worry about it. What destroys treated lumber is exposure to the elements.....especially the sun. I'm satisfied you could sink a CCA treated board in a lake and come back in 20 years and it would be about the same board you sunk to start with.

The reason wood rots is the bacteria in the wood eats it for lunch...and supper.....and breakfast again.......heck, that's natures way of converting dead trees to dirt....otherwise the forest would be 100' deep of dead trees with a little bit of green sticking out the top.....ahahahaaaa

You can stop rot either by keeping the wood dry......below 20% or so moisture content......( and by the way, there is no such thing as "dry rot"......the wood has to be "wet" to support the bacteria that eat it ).....OR pressure inject it with a stew of deadly chemicals like Copper Chromium Arsenate ( CCA ) that make it a real unfriendly environment for those wood eating bacteria critters.....in which case, the moisture content just about doesn't matter.

[block]

Sounds great. Thanks for the help.
Is all pressure treated lumber from HD, Lowe's, ect..the same as this CCA wood that you refer to ?
Thanks

[TnAndy]

yes

[bkrahmer]

It shouldn't be. I work for a lumber yard, and all of our treated is ACQ. It's been mandated since jan 1 of last year, so I wonder what's going on down there.

[block]

I didn't know about this CCA problem until I did some research.
Is the newer ACQ just as good as the CCA ?
Does new/fresh/wet pressure treated lumber shrink when it dries out ?

[bkrahmer]

I can't really say whether it's better or not, but we have been advising everybody that anything metal that comes in contact with it needs to be hot-dipped galvanized. (Except copper). (1/2" or larger bolts are also excepted.) The stuff I have used has been pretty wet, so it shrunk a little when it dried out.

[block]

Sounds great.
Thanks for the help.