How much does a 6x6 x 8foot cedar post cost?

[Carlos Arteta]

How much should I expect to pay for a 6x6 cedar post, about 8 foot long (or whatever standard)? How about cypress? PT? I live in the DC area.

Thanks

[Bob Lloyd]

Call up a lumber yard in your area and ask them.

[Mike Tubbs]

Around $50.00

[Cody Colston]

At the Home Depot in Leesburg, Virginia, Pressure Treated 6 in. x 6 in. x 8 ft. timbers are $19.97 each.

http://www.homedepot.com/Building-Materials-Lumber-Posts-Timbers/h_d1/N-5yc1vZ1xh7Zarzx/h_d2/Navigation?Ns=P_Topseller_Sort|1&No=12&rpp=12&langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053&style=B

[Carlos Arteta]

I just called a local lumberyard and was told that a very high quality white cedar post (don't recall the exact spec), 6x6 by 8 foot, costs $146.36 ...

Can one find 6x6 cedar post at Home Depot? The post will be painted. (I have been told painting PT is not a good idea). Thanks

[Dean Karavite]

Oh darn, I actually had the answer here. I built a pergola with 6x6 clear heart red cedar and it was about $180 per ten footer. I needed three. Here is an old pic (excuse the uncut lawn). They are really nice pieces of wood and boy was I terrified to drill and cut them. Talk about measure twice - how about measure 82 times.

If you are painting, then no way should you spend so much. However, I have yet to see 6x6 cedar or any other non pressure treated 6x6 wood at my Borgs. I'll look a little more closely next time. Does the lumber yard have anything less pricey? Good luck!

[Cody Colston]

Can one find 6x6 cedar post at Home Depot? The post will be painted. (I have been told painting PT is not a good idea). Thanks

There's nothing wrong with painting pressure treated lumber as long as it dries out for a month or two first. You might also want to paint the knots first with shellac to prevent sap bleeding through.

[David Keller NC]

I just called a local lumberyard and was told that a very high quality white cedar post (don't recall the exact spec), 6x6 by 8 foot, costs $146.36 ...

Can one find 6x6 cedar post at Home Depot? The post will be painted. (I have been told painting PT is not a good idea). Thanks

If it's really eastern atlantic white cedar, that's a remarkable deal. It's quite rare nowadays, and there's a reason. Atlantic white cedar is one of the very, very few woods that will stand up to salt water and direct burial and not rot. It was highly prized for making boats before the advent of plastics, and largely cut to extinction.

As to painting pressure-treated - go for it. So long as you paint it with a high quality exterior latex or oil-based exterior, it's fine. Note, however, that any exterior painted wooden surface will need re-painting within 2 to 3 years depending on the weather swings in your area.

[Jim King]

I am building a trelis in the back yard and today brought to the house several peices of stone hard and just about rot proof 6" x 6" x 12 feet yacashupana. $12.60 each. Surfaced 4 sides. You can all cry now.

[jim sauterer]

i have used solid stain on p.t. wood on my deck and it has held up fine.on post and railings.not good on the deck boards.that sure is a lot of money to paint cedar.just my 2 cents.

[Danny Hamsley]

Carlos,

You can get red cedar posts 6x6x8 feet for $26. Here is a link to Richard Newton's website with prices. He is called Cedarman as red cedar is all he saws and processes. This is a top notch outfit to deal with.

http://www.cedarusa.com/products.htm

[Rick Fisher]

Where I live, a 6x6x 8' red cedar post is about $40.00

[Danny Hamsley]

Dealing direct with Cedar USA is dealing direct with the sawmill.

[Kent A Bathurst]

......As to painting pressure-treated - go for it. So long as you paint it with a high quality exterior latex or oil-based exterior, it's fine......

David - I respectfully disagree. The PT process uses waterborne chemicals under tremendous pressure to force the chemical - and the water carrier - into the cells. Freshly treated lumber is WET WET WET by definition. The lumber stores and the PT lumber suppliers are all smart business people, and work to keep their inventories low, and turn them frequently, so MOST of the PT lumber you find will be recently treated.

As the PT dries, that moisture is leaving the wood, and will take any paint with it. After all, paint's goal is to keep the moisture out of the wood - it is just not very effective at keeping moisture IN the wood - adhesion properties will never win that battle. Another response said wait a couple months. Personally, I would wait till next year if I was forced to paint PT.

The largest producer of PT lumber in the US (Universal Forest Products) has an info sheet on their website that says "We do not recommend the use of a conventional multicoat paint system or varnish. The performance is nearly always disappointing..."(their bold-face emphasis). http://www.ufpi.com/literature/ptaddingcolor-197.pdf


...... Note, however, that any exterior painted wooden surface will need re-painting within 2 to 3 years depending on the weather swings in your area........

David - I hope this isn't true for the painted cedar trim and soffits on my house - It's been 6 years, and looks great, and I am hoping for a few more. I'm in Atlanta. Painted previous house in Michigan 6 years before we moved, and I saw it recently and they haven't repainted - it looks good so that's 12 years so far.

[Cody Colston]

Kent,

This subject (painting PT lumber) arose on another forum recently. I PM'd Kelly Hanna, a member here who builds decks professionally and works with PT lumber all the time. He uses Home Depot PT lumber exclusively and said that it can be painted after drying for about a month. I was deferring to his experience in my "month or two" advice.

Also, the "tremendous pressure" used to force the chemical into the lumber is usually atmospheric pressure...14.7 psi at sea level. That's because a vacuum is pulled on the cylinder that contains the lumber and then the chemical is introduced. The vacuum is what forces it into the wood.

If you have ever sawn a PT timber in two, you will see that the penetration isn't very deep. It dries out quicker than you think.

[Kent A Bathurst]

....... He uses Home Depot PT lumber exclusively and said that it can be painted after drying for about a month. I was deferring to his experience in my "month or two" advice....


Cody - didn't mean to appear to argue that point - was just saying what I would do, and offerring the info provided by a large producer. Locale and climate certainly affect this.



Also, the "tremendous pressure" used to force the chemical into the lumber is usually atmospheric pressure...14.7 psi at sea level. That's because a vacuum is pulled on the cylinder that contains the lumber and then the chemical is introduced. The vacuum is what forces it into the wood.

HOWEVER - heh-heh - I will argue this point. The 50 or so PT plants I have seen don't work the way you describe. 2 reasons are (1) to accelerate the process to decrease cycle time and increase production capacity of a very expensive piece of machinery, and (2) provide more finely calibrated control of the process. They were all built in the past 20 years +/-, so I can't speak to older technology.
> Lumber is loaded on a tram. Tram moves into the cylinder, and door is closed.
> Vacuum is pulled - the purpose is to strip as much moisture out of the cells as possible, leaving them "thirsty" and receptive to the solution, and to provide more control over the process.
> Cylinder is flooded - full - of chemical solution, and put under a hard hydraulic (not atmospheric) pressure, to accelerate the absorption of the solution into the wood. The solution is literally forced into the wood. I realize "tremendous" is a subjective term, but this is way beyond the concept of atmospheric pressure.
> Pressure is released, cylinder pumped empty (not just drained - that's too slow), and another vacuum is pulled to retrieve as much residual solution as possible for reuse ($$$), and to provide control over the solution penetration.

There is more than one reason you would see only 1/2"+ penetration in some lumber. First, heartwood can't be forced to absorb the solution, regardless of how much pressure or how much time. You will usually see this untreated heartwood circle in timbers - 4x4, 6x6, etc. Second, the industry standards for treating require penetration only to a specifiec depth (1/2" last I knew). Understand, though, that if you treat "only" the outer 1/2" of a 2 x 6, you are treating over 70% of the total volume of that stick. Still a lot of water.