On Tue, 17 Jul 2012 10:51:45 +0100, Ian Jackson
wrote:

In message id, Jeremy
Nicoll - news posts writes
Harry Bloomfield wrote:

Has anyone got any alternative suggestions please?

Flat bits of thick (5mm+ ?) acrylic plastic, or tile, or rubber, glued on
with silicone sealant?

A while ago I replaced rotten door upstands (at the narrow entrance to an
old air-raid shelter that's now used as an outside workshop) with new wood
which terminates about 3" from ground level (which is in an area that
attracts modest amounts of standing water), with small concrete upstands
below them. Between wood and concrete I inserted acrylic plastic slices,
glued in with sealant, so only when there's snow up against the upstands
would I expect the ends of the wood to be at risk from rising dampness. I
have no idea if it will work...

When the bottom of the legs are quite dry, and it's not going to rain, I
occasionally stand each leg of my garden seats in plastic pots. I then
fill the pots with some anti-rot preservative (the expensive, £20+ per 5
litres, clear stuff), and top up as required. Several hours later, when
it's obvious that no more is going to soak into the legs, I remove the
pots, and reclaim any unused preservative.

Plastic milk cartons are a nice disposable item to do that with, easy
to cut even with a pair of scissors. You end up with a free funnel
with a handle each time from the other half which is often useful for
a one off such as pouring some paint or oil ,a scoop for a small bit
of plaster out of a sack etc.

Depending on the aesthetics you can just leave one on each leg with a
resin infill.
Our pondside table legs were a snug fit and as it sits amongst
reasonably long grass the 4" or so of plastic bottle once it was
covered at the same time as applying Sadolin to the wood are hardly
visible. On a stone Patio it would look a bit untidy.

G.Harman