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Pressure Treated Wood – What Kind of Chemicals are Used to Treat It?

In the pressure treated woods, certain chemical preservatives are infused so that they will not rot or get infected by any insects like termites or carpenter ants. A special process is used for removing the air gap present in the wood where chemical preservatives are infused. The process applied on this pressure treated woods are only meant for preventing from infestation of any kind of insects however it will not prevent corrosion or weathering.

What kind of chemicals is used?

The pressure treated lumber uses the preservative chemicals like Chromated copper arsenic (CCA) during its treatment. Since these chemicals are quite toxic in nature and hence it attracted the attention of the authorities who started imposing restriction on such manufacturing. However, there are many different opinions as regards to toxicity of these preservative chemicals, as certain old preservatives are considered safer, particularly when they are used for any home use.

However, it is recommended that enough precaution must be maintained while using them for home application where children and pets are also present. Many of the manufacturers of such pressure treated woods also responded by exercising certain restraints of the use of CCA when negative publicity was done about these woods.

Additional treatments

It is essential to treat this pressure treated woods with certain sealant so that it can create a layer above the dangerous chemicals like arsenic. This must also be done after regular period on older pressure treated woods too. Also, new pressure treated woods must also be coated with sealant in order to prevent from corrosion and weathering. As a matter of fact, the pressure treatment protects the wood from any kind of internal decay while sealant prevents external damages. Sealant can also protect from drying fast that can cause warping. These woods can also be painted or stained but before doing that it must be properly dried for at least couple of months so that it can enable proper adhesion.

Where pressure treated woods must be used?

Many homeowners often wonder whether they should use such pressure treated woods for their home or not. For that the answer would be, if you want to use it for any outdoor use, then there is no hassle in using them. However, for internal use, you must better avoid using them. The saw dust that comes out of pressure treated woods are also quite harmful to our skin, eyes and nose.