Best wood preserver for shed made from untreated rough sawn pallet wood?

enfieldspares

Well-Known Member
As it says what is the best brush on treatment for a shed/store/summerhouse being made from recycled untreated rough sawn (as in not surface planed) pallet wood? Bearing in mind that creosote will not be an option and that the pallet wood is unstained so I'll need some colour in whatever is used.
 
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If you want something that’s a nice colour and cheap, red diesel make a great preservative and keeps a fairly natural colour.
 
Creosote is best but I can't use it either (to many neighbours)
Sump oil, leave wood to soak in it.
(can be mixed 50:50 with diesel)
 
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You won't go far wrong with waste oil . If you know any tractor fitters try and get tractor back end oil this is not as dirty as engine oil
 
Creosote is certainly the best timber preservative (I’m sure you can’t buy it now unless you’re a builder or a farmer) but if that is not a viable proposition l have used a similar product called “creocote“ it’s oil based looks like creosote but doesn’t smell half as bad and is available from a builders merchant and probably from a DIY store.
 
whats the law on creosote? is it just banned to the public? or if I were to have an old barrel of it can I still use it?
 
If you have a look at the old tudor houses the wood has lasted for hundreds of years, they painted the wood with tar, as obviously that was all that was available at the time, that is probably the best treatment, years ago I painted the cladding on a house I lived in with old engine oil, and twenty years later it looked as good as new.
You can still buy and use Creosote for wood
 
I would use Creosote. It is still available. However if there are environmental objections - in which case diesel is even worse - and you want an environmentally friendly alternative, try used cooking oil. I buy it/get given it by the five gallon drums from local pubs. I use for for fire lighting when I'm doing brush clearance on SSSI land where fossil fuel accelerants are out of the question.

it works well as a harmless wood preserver. But you need to apply several applications to both side of the timber in bone dry conditions so it soaks into the heart of the wood and you ought to reapply it each year, but it repels moisture well and will act as a preservative, and being burnt oil will impart a slight darkening. It will smell like a chip shop for a few weeks after applying though..
 
Creocote is gnats **** I gave up on it.
You can buy creosote, just shouldn't use it in a home / garden setting. Farm and forest use is fine.
If recall right, there was a case or two of cancers in workers in creosote production plants in the US and now use is restricted.
 
There is now only creosote that is a reliable timber preservative. You can still buy it, I just had a 1,000 litre IBC delivered to do my own posts for deer fencing. BUT you need your timber to be dry, and I mean at least one year after being cut.
 
I didn't think u could even buy 'proper' credits now even for farmers.

I know the fencer down the road ( who has a ironmongers shop at hi yard) couldn't get an for his own use.
He had his staff out painting the fence at his house with 50/50 crescote and waste oil mix.
If u were gloves and even a mask I can't see u painting a shed ocasionally really raising ur chances of cancer that much.
As a boy painting all the larch lap fences at home were done with waste oi, would end up covere in it as just sloshing it every where to try and get finished quickier.
Fences never rotted but we're caked in so much oil over the years u couldn't lean against them without getting a mark on ur clothes.

I think hey had taken the actual wood preservatives out off all the modern treatments now, hardly worth putting on.
 
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