Wood filler on PT to be stained or painted?

[Michael Donahue]

Hey folks. I'm going to be building some railings out of PT and some cracking and checking seems inevitible. One set of railings will be painted white, and another will be stained. What is the best way to fill the cracks and checks in these two situations?

Does the 'interior/exterior' stainable wood filler at the borg work well? Is there another route I should be exploring?

Thanks for the help!

[Chris Padilla]

Perhaps if you properly air dry the PT lumber for a while, you might not get any such splits or cracks. Otherwise, I don't think there is anything you can do about them. NO filler is going to last outdoors. Maybe a heavy build primer would help? Sherwin Willimas has such stuff.