I'm sure this has been covered, so forgive me, but my Google-fu is lacking this morning.....
Our local yards store all the PT lumber outside. It gets wet, and is never what I'd consider "dry enough" when we get to install it. This poses a problem for me when it comes to finishes, because I've yet to see a paint or stain that'll stick to it reliably.
What I'm doing currently, is asking my customers to wait. Generally I'll build it and then ask them to wait a minimum of 3 months for the material to "weather" a bit and dry out, and then we return and apply the finish they're after. As you can imagine, this is a giant pain in my ___, and a better way would save me and my customers a great deal of aggravation. I have neither the space nor the funds to buy a seasons' worth of material and store it in the dry myself.
What do you guys do? When you build a new deck / fence, what specific procedures and/or products do you take (prep., primer, paint/stain, how many coats, etc.) when dealing with wet PT lumber?
** Yes, I realize that using composite materials would solve this problem. If you can consistently sell the farmers around here a composite deck system, I need to ride along with you on some sales calls and take notes. :laughing: **
Our local yards store all the PT lumber outside. It gets wet, and is never what I'd consider "dry enough" when we get to install it. This poses a problem for me when it comes to finishes, because I've yet to see a paint or stain that'll stick to it reliably.
What I'm doing currently, is asking my customers to wait. Generally I'll build it and then ask them to wait a minimum of 3 months for the material to "weather" a bit and dry out, and then we return and apply the finish they're after. As you can imagine, this is a giant pain in my ___, and a better way would save me and my customers a great deal of aggravation. I have neither the space nor the funds to buy a seasons' worth of material and store it in the dry myself.
What do you guys do? When you build a new deck / fence, what specific procedures and/or products do you take (prep., primer, paint/stain, how many coats, etc.) when dealing with wet PT lumber?
** Yes, I realize that using composite materials would solve this problem. If you can consistently sell the farmers around here a composite deck system, I need to ride along with you on some sales calls and take notes. :laughing: **