Originally Posted by
Peter Quinn
Ive been looking for the blue wood for years, other than on TV where do you find it? Her in CT I've yet to see it in the local yards or bog boxes at all.
The "blue wood" is lumber that has been treated with borates. The treatment itself is colorless, so they add a blue dye so it shows up visually.
Borates do not "fix" in the wood, so they can only be used for interior applications - if used outdoors, the rain will wash the chemicals out of the wood, making the treatment useless.
Borates are, generally, less expensive than standard PT lumber. It is very good at stopping the formosan termite, which is in gulf coast region. There, it is routinely used for the entire framing - walls, sheathing, etc. YOu need to treat the rest of the structure because formosan can bypass blockages and go to the fresh wood, unlike the normal termite, which is stopped by the sill plate.
So - the cost difference v standard adds up when you gotta do the whole house. You don't see it very much in other regions because of its limitations to indoors - from managing inventories, it is better for the retailers to stick to traditional PT, and sell the small amount of std PT for sill plates only - no requirement for treating beyond the sill plates outside formosan territory. It doesn't do anything the regular PT won't do, and it is more limited in what you can use it for - inside walls.
When I started woodworking, I didn't know squat. I have progressed in 30 years - now I do know squat.
Reply With Quote
)
)