I want to brace a portion of my stairway using two boards that are 2x4x8
inches each. They will be under the tread and the tread and riser will be
carpeted. The back access to the stairs is sealed off. Is it OK to use a
couple of pressure treated boards I have? I.e. any prohibitions on use of
these small pieces of pressure-treated stuff, inside the house?

Thanks.

Chet

CGB wrote:
I want to brace a portion of my stairway using two boards that are 2x4x8
inches each. They will be under the tread and the tread and riser will be
carpeted. The back access to the stairs is sealed off. Is it OK to use a
couple of pressure treated boards I have? I.e. any prohibitions on use of
these small pieces of pressure-treated stuff, inside the house?

Thanks.

Chet

you can use treated lumber in the house, that's fine

It depends on how old the wood is. Older pressure treated lumber contained
formaldehyde. If it's the newer type, it should be OK, but you can't use the
same fasteners, because the new pressure treated lumber rusts them out right
away.

"CGB" wrote in message
...
I want to brace a portion of my stairway using two boards that are 2x4x8
inches each. They will be under the tread and the tread and riser will be
carpeted. The back access to the stairs is sealed off. Is it OK to use a
couple of pressure treated boards I have? I.e. any prohibitions on use of
these small pieces of pressure-treated stuff, inside the house?

Thanks.

Chet

Older wood was CCA I never heard of formaldehide in it, by now it would
have outgassed even if it was in it.

Sorry, you're right, I meant to say arsenic, but was just going from memory.

"m Ransley" wrote in message
...
Older wood was CCA I never heard of formaldehide in it, by now it would
have outgassed even if it was in it.

Yes, go ahead.-Jitney

CGB wrote:
I want to brace a portion of my stairway using two boards that are 2x4x8
inches each. They will be under the tread and the tread and riser will be
carpeted. The back access to the stairs is sealed off. Is it OK to use a
couple of pressure treated boards I have? I.e. any prohibitions on use of
these small pieces of pressure-treated stuff, inside the house?


I'll raise a red flag. I built a shower enclosure and tiled it about 3
years ago. The "curb" and side supports for the shower door were built
from 2x4 PT purposely picked to resist mildew and rot even though no
water should have been able to reach it. The boards were held together
with a few 1/2 screws and washers counter sunk into the exposed
surfaces. Exposed surfaces were covered with WonderBoard strips before
tiling with thinset mortar.

After about a year it appears that the PT lumber was expanding and
cracking the tiles and grout. One of these days I'm going to have to
redo the whole enclosure. But first, I'd like to understand what
happened and what the "right" material to use is.

Stubby wrote:

After about a year it appears that the PT lumber was expanding and
cracking the tiles and grout. One of these days I'm going to have to
redo the whole enclosure. But first, I'd like to understand what
happened and what the "right" material to use is.

the pressure treated lumber is wet so it shrank at first
this caused cracks
once the craks were there, water did get in and
the pressure treated lumber swelled up
probably cracking the grout more.

next time, regular lumber will be fine for subframe

__ this may have posted already, i hit the stop send button

i wanted to add... if you can keep the area dry for a couple of
months...the treated lumber will settle, it will dry and pull all
it's going to pull...at that point you could just re-grout
rather than have to tear the whole thing out

I'll raise a red flag. I built a shower enclosure and tiled it about
3 years ago. The "curb" and side supports for the shower door were
built from 2x4 PT purposely picked to resist mildew and rot even
though no water should have been able to reach it. The boards were
held together with a few 1/2 screws and washers counter sunk into the
exposed surfaces. Exposed surfaces were covered with WonderBoard
strips before tiling with thinset mortar.
After about a year it appears that the PT lumber was expanding and
cracking the tiles and grout. One of these days I'm going to have to
redo the whole enclosure. But first, I'd like to understand what
happened and what the "right" material to use is.

Wood will only "expand" if it's getting wet, in which case you have a
bigger problem than just using pressure treated wood. You have a leak
that needs to be fixed. You didn't mention any kind of waterproofing
material in your construction details, so that would be my first guess.
The entire shower should be waterproofed before tiling, including the
bed, partway up the walls, and up and over the curb. Vinyl membranes are
common, but I used Schluter Kerdi to waterproof my own shower.

In addition, PT lumber is often a lower quality wood (hemlock around
here) that is injected with the chemical treatments. This makes PT
heavier with a relatively high moisture content. As it dries it often
warps and cups badly, which could also explain your tile cracking.
Shouldn't be a problem if it was properly screwed down, but if you had a
single row of nails down the middle or something, it could be an issue.

Viewed from another perspective, wood WILL shrink and expand with changes
in moisture content. Unless the wood is kiln dried, it will probably
shrink later. That's why many "pro's" build curbs out of bricks or other
material that won't shrink and cause the tile to crack.

I want to brace a portion of my stairway using two boards that are
2x4x8 inches each. They will be under the tread and the tread and
riser will be carpeted. The back access to the stairs is sealed off.
Is it OK to use a couple of pressure treated boards I have? I.e.
any prohibitions on use of these small pieces of pressure-treated
stuff, inside the house?

I wouldn't worry about using pressure-treated wood in this case. There
isn't enough to cause problems even if it were to off-gas somehow (which
is unlikely if you've had them a while). And it's probably fully dry by
now if you've had it in storage for a while.

One problem with treated lumber is contact contamination. For example,
kids would play on playsets made of PT lumber, touch it with their hands,
then put their hands in their mouths, eyes, etc. Since the old PT
contained arsenic, this was a potential poisoning problem.

A second problem was "leaching" when used for things like raised garden
beds. The fear was the arsenic would leach into the soil, be taken up
into the vegetables, and poisoning the consumer. I don't remember ever
hearing a case of that happening, but it was a concern.

A third concern is breathing in the PT sawdust while cutting the boards.
Probably not an issue for the occasional weekend handyman, but a
different matter for carpenters who deal with it on a daily basis.

Anyway, I wouldn't hesitate to use the PT wood in your stairs.

Anthony

Bob wrote:
Sorry, you're right, I meant to say arsenic, but was just going from memory.



I read that the new treated lumber has copper in it
and the copper will supposedly dissolve an untreated nail

on another subj, talking about building materials

when I was on a frame crew, when the hurricane hit
nags head a couple years ago...plywood was in big demand

long about winter time, we were getting in hacks of fresh plywood
once you take a few pieces off, the plywood starts to get warm
it is actually hot to touch towards the center...

and, I did enjoy the heat seeing that it was at least 40 below that day
oh yeah! 40 below

generally it's bad for kids, dogs, and firefighters.

http://search.epa.gov/s97is.vts

Ues stainless steel hardware. Better to use the steel studs instead of
wood in that application, I shoud think.

Thanks for all the replies. Other than the actual handling of it, it seems
to be no problem. It will be in an area where no one has access to it and
the associated sawdust from installation will be properly take care of.

Thanks to all.

Chet

If it's the old CCA stuff, with arsenic in it, don't use it inside your
home.

"CGB" wrote in message
...
Thanks for all the replies. Other than the actual handling of it, it
seems
to be no problem. It will be in an area where no one has access to it and
the associated sawdust from installation will be properly take care of.

Thanks to all.

Chet

In most cases its actually recommended when in direct contact
with concrete. Especially in basements!

Only thing I can recommend is to cut it outside and wash
your hands when your done. Other then that, its safe to use.

Tom

Don't chew on them.


-rev

wrote:
Ues stainless steel hardware. Better to use the steel studs instead of
wood in that application, I shoud think.

or he could get a box of galvanized 16's

i use the drill alot when making something like this
i pre-drill the hole, and use vinyal coated deck screws

you really need at least a 16 when binding 2x4's together
end to end, like I say, the drill is the only way to make them
stay without splitting the ends...sometimes you are very
close to the end...or! if I had a good nailer, I could shoot
it with some 16's...

wrote:
In most cases its actually recommended when in direct contact
with concrete. Especially in basements!

Or required.

R