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help i have some wood i am using for a cold frame i want to paint it but WITH WHAT??.as i dont want it to effect the plants etc i have been told cresote is a no no any ideas from seasoned gardeners or timbermen/women
many thanks
dave

I believe creosote is also now illegal in the UK. I'm experimenting with an alternative (more of a paint type thing but it claims to have preservative properties) but I can't remember the name. There's probably a shelf full of options at your local garden / DIY store.

Wulf

Fact is that even pressure treated timber will eventually rot if it is in contact with the ground, or if there are places where water gets trapped.

I'm afraid I built my raised beds out of 'tanalised' timber, which is far from eco-friendly (arsenic and copper compounds applied in a vacuum chamber - gives the timber a greenish colour), but should make things last for maybe ten years. Some people are concerned about these chemicals getting into the environment and food grown nearby, and I have to say it is not my ideal solution - I'll keep you posted if it proves fatal.

If possible, keep the timber a couple of inches or more clear of the ground - maybe build a couple of courses of bricks to mount the frame on, and design it so that water gets shed rather than trapped. But also consider some sort of preservative. If you can, soak the timber before you build the coldframe, preferably by standing the endgrain in a bucket of preservative for a few days, as well as applying it all over.

Creosote is now banned in the UK, but the stores are full of 'something similar'. However, a boron solution seems a promising alternative, with, apparently, some evidence that it is not particularly harmful. Have a look at this page from the Green Building Store.

Also, if you haven't already bought the timber, consider using some of the more impervious or oily hardwoods, like oak or mahogany, sourced from sustainable forests. Venice is, apparently, build on oak piles, and that's lasted a while.

In fact, come to think of it, applying a wood oil, like teak oil, every year may go a long way to preserving your frame.

Muddypause wrote:
I'll keep you posted if it proves fatal.

From beyond the grave perhaps, mate?

I have some untreated pine that I just painted with house paint - two coats if I remember correctly - that has end grain in contact with the ground and it was OK last I checked it. It has been there for about 2 years.

From an enviornmental point of view I would be a bit concerned about teak (being a rainforest timber and all), what plantation timbers would you have access to?

Nev

My coldframe gets put away in the summer but sits out in the rain all the autumn, winter and spring and it's still going strong after about 7 years.

It was made with ordinary old pine, untreated. Not sure exactly what my husband put on it but I'd guess it would first be an insecticide (Xylophene) followed by several coats of what we call in France "lasure", which looks like a varnish but isn't because it soaks into the wood rather than sitting on top of it, and usually contain fungicide and insecticide too. Maybe not environmentally friendly but if you want the death watch beetle eating your coldframe...... quite honestly I've never thought about environmentally friendly products for wood as all we want to do here is keep the insects out of it!

Oh, I can't edit. Why not, I'm sure I normally do?

Anyway just wanted to say what a shame about creosote. I love that smell! mmmmmmmmmm !!!

Ewww - Creosote is a carcinogen!

Nev

Well I like all sorts of funny smells, I just love to sniff those marker pens that smell like pear drops! And (some) car exhaust is lovely!

Well I like all sorts of funny smells, I just love to sniff those marker pens that smell like pear drops! And (some) car exhaust is lovely!

Well I like all sorts of funny smells, I just love to sniff those marker pens that smell like pear drops! And (some) car exhaust is lovely!

There is a problem here - when I clicked on submit I got this message:

Could not connect to smtp host : 10060 : A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because connected host has failed to respond.

DEBUG MODE

Line : 111
File : c:\domains\selfsufficientish.com\wwwroot\Forum\includes\smtp.php

Obviously I tried this several times then gave up - then I saw it had posted my message after all (3 times)!!

Something else I have noticed - there is no edit facility on this thread. There is on other threads. Has that person who has been posting strange computer stuff been mucking around with the site? I am getting that general error every time I post.

I've noticed that there is no edit or delete facility in some of the sections, while there is in others. I suspect that this inconsistency is just an oversight on Andy's part when he set each section up - I imagine these features are selectable for inclusion by the chief moderator. As Andy seems to be internet-less at the moment I don't think there is much we can do about it.

Your error message, and the problem you had with reposting, may be a temporary glitch with your browser of possibly your internet connection (I say that as a relative ignoramus on the subject).

I don't think the poster of irrelevant spam was malicious in that sense - I think that just marked the start of the school holidays.

Ob. creosote: On the one hand the smell reminds me of blissful childhood holidays and sunny afternoons in my grandad's summerhouse; on the other hand it reminds me of a nutty neighbour I once had who creosoted everything - shed, fences, garden furniture, even tree stumps. Sometimes I wondered if she used it on her indoor furniture as well. In these tiny terrace gardens, it all got a little overpowering at times and caused a bit of friction between us.

Muddypause wrote:Your error message, and the problem you had with reposting, may be a temporary glitch with your browser of possibly your internet connection

Obviously not, since I got the same error message when posting that reply.