[Greenbuilding] protecting outdoor wooden structure from future decay (or at least delaying it)

[RT]

On Mon, 17 Feb 2014 11:03:59 -0500, Reuben Deumling <9watts at gmail.com>  
wrote:

> I'm in the process of building a large outdoor structure (porch, timber
> frame bridge, stairs, etc.) out of Douglas fir we milled ourselves. The
> decking is cedar which I'm not worried about,

I'm not so sure that you don't need to be worried about the cedar.

In this part of the world (eastern Canada), for quite some time now (a  
decade or more ?) all of the Western Red Cedar small dimension lumber that  
I've seen is predominantly a high proportion of sapwood ...and that  
material  bears little resemblance (in terms of stability and rot  
resistance) to the WRC that one used to see 30, 40 or more years ago where  
one could sort through a skid and pick out pieces that were all heartwood.  
(The lumberyard didn`t like people doing that but they`d let some do it)

The situation may be different in Murrica (where I understand one can get  
hardwoods from the Brazilian Rain Forest off the rack) and the Pacific  
Coast in particular.

Douglas Fir -- unless one orders it as a special order shipped from the  
West, one simply doesn't see it in the lumber yards here (and it's been  
that way for decades) so I don't know nuttin about nuttin about it anymore.

I think that the best protection for outdoor wood is a roof (tempered  
glass from diverted-from-the-wastestream patio door IGUs would be an  
excellent option for this) -- to keep the elements off of it and minimise  
the wetting/drying cycles that it is exposed to ... and to avoid ground  
contact period ( ie use masonry for below grade and to about a foot above  
grade).








-- 
=== * ===
Rob Tom					AOD257
Kanata, Ontario, Canada

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