Additional Sealant for Pressure Treated Lumber?

[Thomas McCurnin]

It is U.S. Forest Service wilderness and has never been logged or burned yet. 150-200 foot Ponderosa Pines, often only 10-20 feet from eachother, smaller trees, oaks and thorny bushes make up the rest with huge granite boulders and debris from mudslides and rain. Of course, there are old fallen dead trees everywhere, some with trunks 4 feet across. Arroyos (dry creek beds) criss-cross the area It is also at around a 20% grade. No vehicle could ever make it up there, unless a bulldozer preceded it. Walking is a challenge. There is a remnant of a road which was cut in to install the well, but again, fallen trees, live new trees, arroyos, and debris make the road (what is left of it) impassible.

I do like the idea of ground contact pressure treated lumber. My yard has it, but only KDBT (Kiln Dried Before Treatment) and won't cut it, because it has a high moisture contact (they have SawStop saws), so it will shrink like crazy, which is OK for posts, but probably not for a structure. I've heard of KDAT (Kiln Dried After Treatment), but none of the yards have it here. Regular pressure treated is kiln dried at my yard. So I think we are going with that.

The well is forty feet horizontally so any leeching or evaporating sealants will not go near the aquifer.

Given the advice so far, I am back with ordinary pressure treated lumber and sealants, be it paint, black jack, or flex seal. I can wrap the back of the structure where it makes direct contact with the mountain in EPDM rolled roofing membrane. Putting a membrane on the bottom 2x6 seems like it would be futile.

Bear in mind that what was there from 1980 is still there, albeit pretty rotted.



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[Bill George]

Interesting, so its basically a spring water source gravity feeding someplace downhill as there is no apparent power source.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

Cool! You need a few Missouri Mules. They can go anywhere and carry a lot.

other interesting products

2 x 8 x 12' Critical Structural CCA .60 Green Pressure Treated Lumber at Menards®,

https://www.hansenpolebuildings.com/...e-grade-board/

(no title)

[Thomas McCurnin]

Nope, no electricity for about 2 miles. It is spring fed, and opening up the valves releases a huge torrent of water stored in our mountain from the aquifer. And the amazing thing is that the line goes up hill for about a mile, with a total elevation gain of about 100 feet, all working on suction. So lower cabins using a siphon principal and the aquifer's inherent pressure cause the water to go up hill then down.

We had to drain a storage tank a couple years ago and the lines were dry, and without suction from the lower cabins, the well wouldn't work. So we had to rig up a suction pump to start the siphon principal.

And the water quality? We have bettered city water for bacteria and contaminants by 100%. Just amazing crystal clear clean tasting water. Never been written up by the County Health Department. It is the gold standard for water quality. Then again, we're at about 6,500 feet elevation and the source is spring water and snow melt. We had 10 feet of snow last year.

[Perry Hilbert Jr]

My experience has been that at soil level even pressure treated goes to crap in a couple years. Have you considered trex where it contacts the ground or the new plastic materials and sheathing used on sheds etc.

I packed in concrete mix and water to set fence posts. in a remote corner of my property. Only about 100 yds from the tractor on the old logging path and the hauling that stuff wore me out.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

Tom, I am enjoying learning about your well. My wife's family has a cabin with the remnants of a very similar system. It had to be drained every winter and has been derelict for 80 years. The water source was a dug well across the road and up the hill on what was the family farm. The cabin has permanent water rights protected by the deed for the property with the well. We would like for the camp to have water again. There is another shallow well close by and down hill. The hand pump for that system is still present.

[Tom M King]

Instead of paint, I would consider wrapping it with stainless steel sheet metal, or even vinyl coated aluminum, especially the top. If I was closer, I'd help you hump stuff up there.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

Instead of paint, I would consider wrapping it with stainless steel sheet metal, or even vinyl coated aluminum, especially the top. If I was closer, I'd help you hump stuff up there.

+1 for a metal roof. Find some CCA 60 and wrap it with aluminum with trim coil. CCA is not corrosive to metals.

[Bill Dufour]

Metal might be a magnet for scrappers.
Bill D

[Doug Garson]

Metal might be a magnet for scrappers.
Bill D

Yeah, that's a serious concern considering it is about a 2 mile hike through the mountains without any trails. With 150-200 foot Ponderosa Pines, often only 10-20 feet from each other, smaller trees, oaks and thorny bushes make up the rest with huge granite boulders and debris from mudslides and rain. Of course, there are old fallen dead trees everywhere, some with trunks 4 feet across. Arroyos (dry creek beds) criss-cross the area It is also at around a 20% grade. No vehicle could ever make it up there, unless a bulldozer preceded it. Walking is a challenge. There is a remnant of a road which was cut in to install the well, but again, fallen trees, live new trees, arroyos, and debris make the road (what is left of it) impassible.

I think you could make it out of gold bars and not worry about theft.

[Thomas McCurnin]

We were also considering placing the structure on a Railroad Tie base, but that simply won't protect the back of the cabinet which must sit against the mountain/hillside, and it is the back which quite rotten at this point, so that feature was abandoned.

Rains and mudslides, gravel, large rocks, and muck flow down the side which has about a 60% grade. The bottom line is that this mountain, the largest in Southern California at 11,500 feet, is very unforgiving, and this structure just might have to be re-built occasionally.

[Tom M King]

Railroad ties don't last any longer on the ground than treated lumber. For train tracks, they're sitting on a big bed of well draining railroad ballast stone. I can tell you that for a fact. We lined the outside of our Dressage arena with railroad ties just sitting on the ground. In fact, they don't last as long as treated.

[Thomas McCurnin]

We are also considering simply digging out the area and shoring the hillside with stairstep shoring of rocks, plywood, railroad ties and slowly lugging 9" blocks to make a crude retaining wall. This will have to be done over time into next year as we are bumping into snow season. My experience with railroad ties is different, as our cabin has original outdoor stairs made of railroad ties which appear to be near original from the 1930s or 1940s.

[Tom M King]

Your soil must be better draining than ours. Where I had the Dressage arena built, it was cut into a hillside. These railroad ties are sitting on red clay. They were used ones to start with too. I think they're about 20 years old and need to be replaced. They just keep the footing from washing away and serve as the perimeter.

[Jim Becker]

We were also considering placing the structure on a Railroad Tie base, but that simply won't protect the back of the cabinet which must sit against the mountain/hillside, and it is the back which quite rotten at this point, so that feature was abandoned.

Rains and mudslides, gravel, large rocks, and muck flow down the side which has about a 60% grade. The bottom line is that this mountain, the largest in Southern California at 11,500 feet, is very unforgiving, and this structure just might have to be re-built occasionally.

Construction of the little shed aside, you need to do a little ground work behind it to try and redirect most of the moisture moving down the slope toward it or you'll be revisiting this faster than you (or your successors) might prefer.