Article: The facts about pressure-treated wood

Q. What did you suggest some time ago to treat a pressure- treated deck? I have been giving my deck a coat of sealer once a year for too many years, and I am sick of it. MAUREEN McNEIL, Marblehead A. It's ironic that pressure-treated wood was created, partly for the use of decks, to prevent premature decay and to make those decks maintenance-free. Then they discovered that the P-T wood tended to split, spall and chip when it expanded and contracted as it took on moisture, then dried out.

So the wise men invented sealer, which makes the wood water resistant, preventing those chips, splits and spalls. The only problem is that the sealer had to be reapplied once a year, or at most, every two ...

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