Time for some informal survey work. This weekend I was preparing some soil and I found a dowell that I had previously drilled a hole in and inserted a wire…like some telepone poles I once purchased. I guess I had used it to help prop up some plant a while back (like two years) Aside from being weathered grey, it still survived.
It was one of those “square dowells” one can get at Wal*Mart. I then, as a quick almost unplanned project…build a crude fence out of the same materials.
Question…how long do your treated and untreated wood structures normally last?
I don’t intend for that fence to last long (pics soon), but its simple, construction means it can be rebuild with minimal effort.
also depends on how long it takes the termites to find it! The more wood in a given location the better home for those loveable little insects! Hey!, the bug spray guy makes a living off them so, who sez they ain’t loveable!
The wife still has some birdhouses (real birdhouses built for the birds, not the GRR) that I made for her about 10 years ago. The things were made of cheap pine. I’ve had to replace the pine poles they sit on twice, but the birdhouses are still attracting the birds. (all untreated pine, the cheap stuff)
Climatic conditions are going to have more effect on wood than anything else. Out here in Arizona, a lot of people put up cedar fences with untreated posts just driven directly into the ground and not surrounded by cement. It takes 3 or 4 years for the wood to begin turning dark, and it eventually becomes a very dark brown color. in about 10 years, the posts begin to rot out at the base or termites get to them and the fences start blowing over during the summer rainy season.
For something as small as a dowel used as a telephone pole on a garden railway I don’t see termites being as much of a threat as damp soil. I have built several long bridges out of cedar fence picket material coated with polyurethane and expect that they will last longer than I do.
About a week in VA if it’s put untreated into the ground directly. Moisture is ever present and mold and rot will happen almost immediatly. Like Torby said, it’s the amout of dry time between getting it wet that matters.
Central Texas? If I’m not mistaken, it’s pretty dry for the most part and untreated wood should last quite some time. Sounds like to me that you just ran an unofficial experiment and have answered your own question.[;)]
I’m in the same boat. I built some stuff last year and over this winter and am interested to see how long it last. I have been dipping the raw wood in a polyurethane bath, then after everything dries, I paint with a good quality deck paint. I’m hoping that will seal the wood up enough to last for a good long while.
I have four “birdhouse” structures, all made from untreated fir of some sort. three lasted three years without any attention from me at all. They are now in the rubbish heap. The fourth is a church that i like very much and it’s getting a total rebuild. It’s also three years old. CCA forty pressure treated is supposed to be guarranteed forty years buried. My deck is eight years old and I have over thirty buried 4 x 4’s supporting it. It’s rock solid. I’ll let you know what happens in about thirty-two years. Less, if there’s a significant development.
this question is as hard to answer as how long is a piece of string, in some places months ohers decades.
In Rome i have seen a bit of wood in a hole that was said to have been placed there by either Romulous or Reymus, back in mythical times. I didn’t believe it then nor now, but i’m sure it has been there for centuries.
I any case i use concrete (cement) in my garden railway.
There are houses in this area that have floors made from Ironwood, after 200 years they still look like the day they were put down.
I understand in Australia there is a kind of wood that is found in swampy areas that is from trees that are 20,000 years old or so. The trees fell over into the swamp and were preserved until there was enough money in Australia to afford this sort of thing. I can’t remember what they were called, but there is your proof that wood can and does last a long time under the right conditions.