subsurface post treatment

[reuben_j_cogburn]

I have an overly optimistic building plan for this fall and next spring. There is no way that I can afford to buy all the treated posts I'll need..
I was wondering if any of you have used any of the paint on treatments that they sell at the hardware stores, or home depot etc...
I'm not wanting to have to replace posts ant time soon!! As these will be log structures.

About 13 years ago I re-built a corral using spruce posts that had gone through a fire, and they seem pretty sturdy yet... Has anyone burnt posts to preserve them?? I do have a weed burner...

Tanks much..

reuben....

 

[jgt]

Burning them, painting them with penta & and diesel(assuming you can still buy penta), or the black goo used for roof sealant.

 

[bogus bill]

In the early 1960`s I was a foreman for Osmose wood preserving company. We treated old utility company power and telephone poles all over the country for ground line decay. Dug around the pole to a foot and half deep and applied our treatment "Osmoplastic" . It looks like tar and had poison in it that the wood would absorb through
"Osmose action". It poisoned the wood to keep decay from eating on it.
I dont know if they will sell the "gook" to a private person or not. I left the company 56 years ago. You might start here.
https://www.osmose.com/careers
Once we dug around the pole we brushed the dirt off, chipped off any decay and then brushed the "Osmoplastic" on it. Then we rolled a treated paper they had around the treated pole, stapled it and covered the pole back up.
A hard dirty job. However as a young man traveling all over the states it was a interesting life off the job.

 

[Rook]

I don't know how long of posts you need but Locus post used for fence post last just about forever without any treatment.

 

[blume357]

I don't know how long of posts you need but Locus post used for fence post last just about forever without any treatment.

that's what I was going to suggest... but not sure it grows up yonder... same with cypress... after that I'd look at cedar maybe....

 

[coach]

Penta and creosote come to mind first. Both are now only available professionally. I do see wood preservatives on the shelf but have no clue which works best. I assume any treatment is better than none.

 

[bogus bill]

We were taught/trained that wood poles got groundline decay the first 16 inchs below the suface. Those poles go down another four, six feet or more. They dont decay deeper. I worked on some poles that were tagged far back as the 1890`s! Most very old ones were "stubbed" meaning another pole was set and the older pole was strapped to it.
Besides treating the pole we also drilled it seeing if there was decay in the center with good wood around it. You could feel it if there was the way the drill would "drop" through if it had any, plus looking at the residue on our drill bit. (We used a special super long bit and a common old hand drill. If we found decay we had a liquid treatment we would hand pump through the hole we drilled. We also hammered around each pole and you could tell a lot just by the sound and maybe how the hammer felt. Then we would plug the drilled hole with a treated wood plug. The company had another division where they had crews that would spray a treatment on the pole above the ground but I never worked around that.
I got looking at the job offers as foremen that I just googled. Sounds like it hasn't changed much. I can tell you it`s a hard dirty job with responsibility. and that you might average a month or two in one area and then be sent to a different state and repeat. When you get to ten buck two, you somehow find your own new crew (two to four men) to dig for probably minimum wage, let them know it will only be for maybe a month and repeat.
You had to be tough, young, single and adventurous. The real deal was your life off the job. You would just meet a new girl and get ordered a thousand miles away. We all were no good rouges or became one.

 

[Chief 101]

I kept a 55 gallon drum with used motor oil in it and kept to be used posts in it while waiting for install...while not a permanent fix it did give me over 10 years use on most fence posts...posts that would have had 2-3 year lifespan

 

[tinman]

Anyone got thoughts on just dipping them in hot tar?

 

[Mobuck]

Nothing applied to the surface is going to last. That's where the "penta" comes in. For a while local lumber yards wouldn't sell 8x8 treated timbers as the process didn't consistently force the treatment to the center of that size post.
I've heard that "burning" the outer surface of resinous trees leaves a hard, semi-impermeable layer that resists decay(at least better than nothing).
I've "oiled" posts which seems to help but no research supporting the practice. Debarked and seasoned black locust is second to osage orange in resisting below ground rot but the black locust will eventually rot at ground level(about 40-45 years is the average life of an 8-10" diameter black locust corner post). I've re-set osage orange (hedge) corner posts that had already been in the ground over 40 years and we occasionally plow up solid, intact hedge posts which had been dozed under in 1972 but had originally been set in the early 30's .

 

[OVERLOADDED]

Osage orange is the best and it will last 40 to 50 years. It is also used for long/recurve bows. While bugs will bore above ground I have pulled 6 inch post from the ground and sold them for wood working projects. The yellow wood turns orange after the air hits it. Some soak Osage orange in a pond for a year before splitting onto bow staves.Overloadded

 

[Mobuck]

I built a lot of fence the summer after we moved to this farm in October 1980. Those mostly fresh cut hedge posts have been in the ground 40 years and are still solid. In the mid-1980's, I used a bunch of black locust to build corrals since they were straighter and easier to handle. Most of those weren't seasoned but were de-barked(if you don't do that, the bark rots off leaving the post loose in the ground) and many are or soon will be rotted off. There's a stage of growth, age, or size of black locust that gives longest service life and use before or after may not provide as much in ground life. A black locust bigger than 10-12" diameter often has pockets of rot in the living tree which causes early failure as a post. The bigger ones also tend to split at the top allowing water into the heart resulting in rot.

 

[Colonel Daddy]

Watching some of the "living off the Grid" videos on YouTube, burning the outside of the posts seem pretty effective.

 

[reuben_j_cogburn]

Thanks for all the reply's....
The osmose stuff seems bit difficult to obtain. I was hoping that what ever I decided on could just be purchased over the counter.. Even tar... I'm not sure I could get that here either.. unless I took my weed burner out onto the hiway some night..... :shock:

My only wood available to build with is spruce, (white and black), and birch... (which has a very fast decay rate)..... There are very few other types of tree's in my area, and none are good for building anything structural....
Most of my out buildings so far have been spruce poles in the ground.. Simple pole structures, (wood storage sheds) that are semi disposable... (not my cabin of course!)..... :roll: )
However I am really in need of a few "permanent", structures.. I want to build a cabin for canning and storage.. and perhaps a bath house.
Since I am needing to build with logs I can not use the adjustable concrete building piers as the weight is just to great... And building with the logs on the ground is not acceptable to me as I detest mice in my house!!..... :lol:
Not to mention that logs rot quite quickly on the ground... which is why the eaves are so long on log cabins built that way... To keep the moisture as far away as possible...
In any event.... the method has to be simple and easy to procure..... Perhaps propane and my wood burner is the best bet... Maybe leaving room for sinking sono tubes as funds allow.....
It may seem silly but a lot of building projects have been on hold for this simple thing.... The foundation is the most important, as so far most expensive part.....

 

[coach]

Is there any source for telephone poles? Even used poles could be cut and inspected for decay.

 

[Mobuck]

"Is there any source for telephone poles? Even used poles could be cut and inspected for decay."
My Father in Law bought a truck load of "used" powerline poles to re-purpose for corner posts. In less than 20 years, most were rotten and breaking off. The only utility poles I'd consider would be the replacement poles that had only been in use a few years when the entire line was rebuilt. Around here, there may be 10-20% that have been replaced per decade and would be suitable for re-use.