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Noticed my neighbor's deck was sagging after he used treated lumber from 2015
I was over at my neighbor's place last weekend in Raleigh and saw his deck is dipping in the middle. He told me he built it five years back with some leftover treated lumber he'd had sitting in his garage since 2015. I checked the tags and the wood was rated for ground contact but he'd used it for joists without checking the moisture content. The whole thing is bowing maybe three inches now. He's got to pull up the decking and sister some new joists in there. Any of you guys run into issues with old lumber that's been stored too long before building?
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thomas.parker12d ago
Wait, did he treat the lumber after he stored it, or was it already pressure treated from 2015? Honestly, I've got a similar story that'll make you feel better. @evan_wilson18 you gotta hear this one. I picked up a pallet of deck boards from a guy on Craigslist who said they'd been in his barn since 2008, and I figured they'd be fine for a small raised bed. Ngl, I built it last spring and by fall the whole thing looked like it was doing the wave at a football game. Tbh, I think the problem is the wood dried out unevenly in storage, so when it gets wet again it just goes crazy. I had to tear the whole thing down and start over with fresh lumber from Lowe's, and even the new stuff I let acclimate in my garage for a week before building.
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the_nina12d ago
Yeah definitely, I once built a planter box from lumber that sat in my shed through three Georgia summers and it warped so bad it looked like a modern art sculpture. Mine didn't bow just a little bit though, the whole thing twisted into a pretzel shape and my tomatoes looked like they were growing at a 45 degree angle. Old wood is just a gamble with moisture content, kind of like buying a used car off Facebook marketplace.
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