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Historical wood treatments

Started by Stephaniejashley, November 26, 2013, 01:27:22 PM

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Stephaniejashley

I am remodeling my house which I think was originally a military barrack, possibly just the floor. The framing consists of a wide variety of what appears to be salvaged wood. Some 1x4s, some 2x12s, framed diagonally. Some looks like rough cedar. Some has various paint from whatever it was used for previously.

I live just north of austin,  Texas but the house was moved to the lot in the 1970s. I have not been able to find out where it was moved from or how old it might be.

The 2x4s, etc are true 2"x4", etc. The tax records say it was built in 1058, but who knows. I think whoever built it brought it home one board at a time like the Johnny Cash song about the Cadillac.

The "sawdust" from one board was not dust at all but more like half melted plastic shavings. Another board looks crystallized kind of like amber.

I'll add photos when I figure out how :-)

Is this stuff going to hurt us?

Any thoughts/ideas?

Thank you!

beenthere

Welcome to the Forestry Forum.
Will gladly try to help you figure this out. Pics will certainly help and if they are in digital .jpg format on your computer, then go to your profile and set up a gallery for yourself there. Once that is done, then below this post window is a line that says "Click here to add Photos to post".  Follow along and it should be intuitive (as intuitive as much of this computer stuff can be  ::) ).

If written instructions needed, there is a thread at the top of the "Behind the Forum" forum on the Home page that is well written.
If any hangups following along, just give a shout.

From what I gather from your post, you may be seeing pine that has some sap or pitch oozing out that has crystallized. Can't think of any wood treatments available in the late 50's (thinking that 1058 is a typo) other than possibly creosote which was used for railroad ties and such. Not 2X dimension material. Next came Penta products. The fear mongers managed to get that good treatment off the market and we moved on to some arsenic formulas... and the fear continued with the hype. Like food, it its good then they find that it is bad for us to eat it.  ;D
south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

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