Jack wrote:

Never paint outdoor stuff, it will promote rot when moisture gets
under the paint and never dries out, plus, refinishing sucks, and
generally easier to burn it than try to refinish painted furniture. Use
stain, like deck stain or house stain, it resists chipping and
blistering, and is easy to refinish.

Vigorous second from this corner!


Here's an Adirondack chair my daughter wanted. You should be able to
see the legs are womanized.

Womanized legs are the best of the best. Screw all the rest - so to
speak... (Stainless of course...)


The real key to outdoor stuff is for the wood to dry out quickly after
rain. Where two pieces meet is a potential problem area, and anywhere
fasteners are exposed, particularly on horizontal surfaces, like an
arm, water can pool and rot the wood. Try to not use screws on arm
tops, use pocket screws from underneath, and water will not pool
around the screws. Any knots on horizontal surfaces I fill with a
mixture of sawdust and outdoor glue, to prevent water from sticking
around too long. Ground contact (dirt) requires wolmanized wood. On
the other hand, the 35 year old chair ignored most all of this advice
and odds are good it will outlast me.

Good for you Jack. These are principles that have survived time - even
before pressure treating came on the scene. I too have stuff that I built
almost 30 years ago, and which simply sits outside all year long, and is
still serviceable to this day. Like you, I use treated wood for ground
contact, and cheap ass pine for other areas. I'm not looking for stuff that
will last 300 years. If I was, I would use the same pressure treated
materials that the artisans of the 16th century used...

I have used plenty of non-treated pine for ground contact, and over time,
I've had to replace sections. Never considered that to be such a big
issue - it was expected. Once every 10 years or whatever, is not so
demanding of me to find it objectionable.

--

-Mike-