On 4/30/2010 12:57 AM, aemeijers wrote:
Greg O wrote:

"John" wrote in message
...

So, I'm looking between Pressure Treated and Cedar.

When I bought my home the previous owner had put in a cedar fence. The
posts rotted off in ten years, and the pickets were darned near like
stryofoam they were so dry. I replaced it with green treated, ten
years now, and it is as solid as the day I put it in. I have not
touched it as far as maintainance, no sealer, stain, nothing. It
gradually faded to a nice grey color.
As for fence materials, I would put in pretty much anything, EXCEPT
cedar!
Greg

Depends on the cedar and the climate, I guess. The fence on my house
down in Louisiana went about like yours, as that climate will rot
concrete. But where I grew up in Indiana, alternating-picket cedar
fences I helped nail together 40 years ago are still standing. Western
RSC is about the most popular fence board down there, at least for the
pickets, since I was a small child back in the stone age. I presume most
people now use pressure-treated for the posts and rails, due to cost.
After redwood got too expensive, and before recycled pop bottle wood was
available, it was also the default for deck frames, decking, and railings.

Cedar used to be cheaper than pine in the South. Went to buy some a
while back and found out that it had become a luxury item.

By the way, new technology--don't know whether it actually works or not,
and it's not cheap enough for fencing yet, but the local hardwood yard
has quite a lot of "torrefied" lumber of various species. Googling that
I find that it seems to result in chemical changes making the various
wood components that fungi and termites like indigestible to them and so
works as an effective and nontoxic preservation process, with the side
effect that the wood comes out as dark as walnut.

Next project I do I think I'm going to give it a try and while I'm about
it cut some stakes and stick them in the back yard to see how they
really hold up.