Kild Dried After Treatment (KDAT)

[Brad Seubert]

I need to re-build the railings and skirts around my front porch. They will be painted white to match the rest of the house and while looking into what lumber to use I ran across some mention of KDAT. Seems like a painted railing would be a great application for this. Problem is I can't seem to find any in my area (Milwaukee, WI).

Awhile back I built a small kiln with a fan and dehumidifier in an insulated box. Wondering if there is any reason I can't stack a bunch of pressure treated 1 x's in my kiln and dry them myself.

Seems like the biggest issue with pressure treated lumber is the excess moisture which leads to paint failures. I am thinking this would solve that problem.

[Neil Gaskin]

I need to re-build the railings and skirts around my front porch. They will be painted white to match the rest of the house and while looking into what lumber to use I ran across some mention of KDAT. Seems like a painted railing would be a great application for this. Problem is I can't seem to find any in my area (Milwaukee, WI).

Awhile back I built a small kiln with a fan and dehumidifier in an insulated box. Wondering if there is any reason I can't stack a bunch of pressure treated 1 x's in my kiln and dry them myself.

Seems like the biggest issue with pressure treated lumber is the excess moisture which leads to paint failures. I am thinking this would solve that problem.

I can't speak to drying your own material as I have no experience with that.

Have you considered alternative wood species such as Cedar or Cypress? If you can find inland cedar I would prefer that to western red.

[Todd Burch]

KDAT is great to paint.

Todd

[Kent A Bathurst]

Brad -

I never intend to build another deck in my life - BTDT. If I am mistaken, then it will only be with KDAT.

You probably can dry it yourself. You want it stickered properly, and you want to use some type of straps to hold the entire unit together tightly. Probably do well to put some weight on top of the stack as well. Don't be in a big hurry with the drying schedule.

When free-range PT lumber dries, like just sitting around, it will want to warp and twist as the moisture comes out of it. You have to counteract that as best as you can.

There will be others here that would disagree with this next bit - not in principle, just in the timeframe: If you install the PT lumber, then it won't warp. Let it sit for a year, so the moisture gets out, then paint it. Others say a year is overkill.

If you look at the literature from the PT producers, they say everything they can possibly say to discourage painting - because as the moisture leaves, it is not going to let a silly thing like paint adhesion stand in its way.

Finally -

Maybe give a call to Biewer Lumber [link]. I know for certain that their Lansing, MI PT facility has a kiln. I don't know about their other PT plants. But, call them, and ask if there is a distributor within reach of you.

http://www.biewerlumber.com/locations/


Also - you could try Universal Forest Products. At one time, they had 2 facilities in Janesville, and one had a kiln. I don't know if [a] they still have that plant, and [b] if so, do they produce KDAT?

They do have a couple locations that do KDAT that I know of, but nowhere near you. They also have KDAT product info on their website:

http://www.prowoodlumber.com/en/Treated-Options/KDAT.aspx

[Brad Seubert]

I can't speak to drying your own material as I have no experience with that.

Have you considered alternative wood species such as Cedar or Cypress? If you can find inland cedar I would prefer that to western red.

I'm trying to keep this as cost effective and simple as possible. I would like to able to purchase something already dimensioned and not have to joint and plane everything myself. The box stores have western red but its pricey and would need to be cleaned up on the rough side.


Brad -

I never intend to build another deck in my life - BTDT. If I am mistaken, then it will only be with KDAT.

You probably can dry it yourself. You want it stickered properly, and you want to use some type of straps to hold the entire unit together tightly. Probably do well to put some weight on top of the stack as well. Don't be in a big hurry with the drying schedule.

When free-range PT lumber dries, like just sitting around, it will want to warp and twist as the moisture comes out of it. You have to counteract that as best as you can.

There will be others here that would disagree with this next bit - not in principle, just in the timeframe: If you install the PT lumber, then it won't warp. Let it sit for a year, so the moisture gets out, then paint it. Others say a year is overkill.

If you look at the literature from the PT producers, they say everything they can possibly say to discourage painting - because as the moisture leaves, it is not going to let a silly thing like paint adhesion stand in its way.

Finally -

Maybe give a call to Biewer Lumber [link]. I know for certain that their Lansing, MI PT facility has a kiln. I don't know about their other PT plants. But, call them, and ask if there is a distributor within reach of you.

http://www.biewerlumber.com/locations/


Also - you could try Universal Forest Products. At one time, they had 2 facilities in Janesville, and one had a kiln. I don't know if [a] they still have that plant, and [b] if so, do they produce KDAT?

They do have a couple locations that do KDAT that I know of, but nowhere near you. They also have KDAT product info on their website:

http://www.prowoodlumber.com/en/Treated-Options/KDAT.aspx


Thanks Kent I will look into these and see what I can find.

[Art Mann]

Brad,

I did exactly the same thing you are wanting to do and I used kiln dried pressure treated lumber. I special ordered it at a commercial lumber company where I buy plywood and pine lumber. I specified #1 lumber which contained only a few small hard knots. Overall, the lumber was excellent and the project went well. It has been a year now and there is no evidence whatsoever of paint peeling. The lumber was not quite as dry as I wanted so I left it in a hot shop loft for a month and it got really dry. I paid twice as much as I would have paid for the best material available at Lowes/Home Depot and I think it was worth every penney.