On Oct 19, 10:25*pm, Red Green wrote:
RicodJour wrote :



On Oct 18, 11:47*am, wrote:
I am putting up some trim on shed project. this is 1x4 cedar. just
wonder
ing
if regular hot-dip galvanized nails ok for this purpose?

Not really. *Unless you're painting the cedar, and why would you go
with cedar in that instance?

Eventually the tannins in the cedar will eat through the zinc coating
and you'll get nasty black splotches at every nail that is exposed to
the weather. *Even countersinking the nails and puttying the heads
won't stop it. *There's always moisture in wood and you'll get the
black stains.

Stainless is a fairly cheap upgrade, so if you want it to look good
for a long time, spring for the extra few bucks.


Didn't know that about galv nails and cedar. Can you think of other
lumber that shouldn't have galv nails?


Cedar and redwood are about the worst, but oak also has a lot of
tannins and will stain. The kicker is that some of the wood
organizations still say you can use hot dipped galvanized nails. I
have no idea why they are maintaining that position. Hot dipped
galvanized is far better than electroplated, but a zinc coating is a
sacrificial coating - it doesn't last forever. The tannins in cedar
and redwood eat the galvanizing. I found this out the hard and
expensive way about 25 years ago. A beautiful installation turned
ugly in the matter of a few years. No way in hell am I using anything
other than stainless steel unless the wood is to be painted and the
nails countersunk and puttied. I'd still probably just go with the
stainless as it's cheap insurance.

R