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Thread: Pressure Treated for indoor application?

  1. #1

    Pressure Treated for indoor application?

    Hello,

    I am about the embark on a cabinet build for my home office and was planning on doing cabinet boxes on a ladder frame base. The floor in the office is on-grade concrete. The room is very well insulated and I have not had any moisture issues. Would anyone still recommend use of pressure treated wood for the ladder frame or would you stick with regular construction lumber? Thanks for the feedback.

    Mo

  2. #2
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    I would recommend a foam vapor barrier under whatever wood you choose to use.

    Treated lumber has a very high moisture content and tends to change shape in many ways. I would stack and sticker it in your office for several months before building anything nice from it.
    Last edited by Lee Schierer; 11-06-2020 at 10:03 AM.

  3. #3
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    Using PT for the material that is in contact with the concrete is a normal thing. It's actually an advantage that you are making your bases separate that you can do so, too. No worries and you can cap the front for appearance with thin plywood painted black to keep it in the shadows.
    --

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  4. #4
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    I wouldn't use pressure treated because it's so wet & unstable as it dries out. So you would need to let it dry for at least a couple of months, then mill it to get it straight & flat. That will generate a ton of toxic dust & chips. Then you need to apply preservative to the newly milled surfaces, at least on the bottom, or there's no point to using PT.

    Just use 3/4" plywood for the ladder frame & set it on some sill gasket. Even if you do use PT, use sill gasket as well to keep moisture from wicking up & migrating to the cabinet.

  5. #5
    There are many ways to deal with a concrete to wood interface other than pressure treated wood. You can seal the concrete, seal the wood, shim the ladder frame entirely off the floor, etc.

    I only use PT where I can control wood movement through fastening. Usually this means building with green/wet lumber. Acclimating PT often means letting it contort to some unusable form.

  6. #6
    +1 for vapor barrier, then regular framing lumber. I cannot imagine any piece of PT lumber holding it's shape once it dries out. Good luck, whatever you end up doing.

    Erik
    Ex-SCM and Felder rep

  7. #7
    Join Date
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    You can buy kiln dried PT ( called KDAT - kiln dried after treatment ) which is more stable than non KD PT. Not sure if the local borgs stock it. If you go that way, you still should let it aclimate to your shop env before milling.
    Brian

    "Any intelligent fool can make things bigger or more complicated...it takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction." - E.F. Schumacher

  8. #8
    I ripped out a raised platform in a home that was all pressure treated on concrete. Old days when it had more evil chemicals but ones that worked. I pulled old pressure treated out of the ground 40 years and just about could have put them back on the shelf in a big box store they were that good. Didnt Mike Holmes use some blue colloured stuff that was good on concrete and safe inside the home?

    realize pressure treated chemicals have been changed to more friendly stuff that never works as well as the old evil stuff. Doubt the wood is as good either these things are still perfect.

  9. #9
    We are spec'd with PT dimensional kicks regularly. The only advice is to use a material that is very dry just so you can control any wild movement. May be hard to find in the current condition as they seem to be fast tracking everything at the moment.

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