Treated pine fence

Discussion in 'Planting, growing, nurturing Plants' started by grandtippler, Dec 4, 2007.

  1. grandtippler

    grandtippler Guest

    Hello,

    I'm building a fence around my veggie garden, it will go about 2 meters out from the border all around. The only material I can find for the posts is treated pine, is 2 meters far enough away or will I be sucking on nasties when I eat my veg.
    Any advice would be much appreciated.

    Cheers,
    Brian
     
  2. Jez

    Jez Junior Member

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    G'day Brian,

    It's hard to say how far any contaminant from the posts will spread - slope and soil type will be major factors.

    Personally, I'd avoid taking any risk and just build out of other materials. You could use steel droppers and ferro-cement or sheet metal/colourbond, or a living fence, or straw bails or similar which will also serve as a windbreak.
     
  3. gardenlen

    gardenlen Group for banned users

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    g'day brian,

    just wondering if you have considered metal posts??

    for a garden fence maybe galvanised star pickets might do the job just as well as anything else, and at any time in the future you could take the fence down if need be? and no digging of post holes or need to cement posts in either.

    but i'm sure if you go to a fencing shop yo can buy galv' posts. anything but treated wood. those treated palings never stop drying out and warping and buckling amd should realy be screwed instead of nailed.

    len
     
  4. rhancock

    rhancock Junior Member

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    Have a look at these: https://www.enviropost.com.au They quoted me $20 for the smaller size delivered in Brisbane.

    There is so much myth and misinformation about treated pine its become impossible to work out where the truth is.

    However, the Precautionary Principle would suggest that you shouldn't use treated pine as you don't know its impact.

    So the question really is: Why are you using treated pine? Because its cheap and available? Because you want your fence to last twice as long? To protect it from termites?
     
  5. grandtippler

    grandtippler Guest

    Thanks so much for your replies, I will look into metal posts, I could not find any local and was worried about how to connect up rites so I can tension the wires without the post coming out of the ground.

    Thanks again
    brian
     
  6. gardenlen

    gardenlen Group for banned users

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    grand tippler,

    most very good hardware stores can help with steel posts if not seek out a fencing supplier.

    stays to keep strainer posts straight are reasonably easy to do if need be can discuss that later but if you are using wire mesh or weld mesh then stays might not be so important.

    len
     
  7. permasculptor

    permasculptor Junior Member

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    How bad or good or sustainable or not is or would be. -Painting over all possible cca treated surfaces. with oil or bitumen . Im wondering??
     
  8. bill

    bill Junior Member

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    Treated pine was not banned in australia - it was restricted for use in playgrounds and the like. that ban was because the cca pine manufacturers were overconfident and put in a half arsed submission and the APVMA made the ruling that the industry had not substantiated the product as safe. They are actually quite stable. If you are reusing already weathered logs the danger from leachate would be zilch. Dust from drilling and cutting is more of a problem. New logs can have some manufacturing residue on them (they shouldnt but they can).

    The amin opponents to cca treated timber came from metal and plastic playground manufacturers.... they have done very nicely out of it all.

    Anyhow, I am going to duck for cover on this one. I might add that the manufacturing process for cca logs is not exactly sustainable practice however.
     
  9. pebble

    pebble Junior Member

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    My understanding is that seasoned treated wood is pretty stable too - the science view is that once the wood has been properly made there is zero leaching (they did research on tanalised pine being used in contact with seawater).

    But now in NZ there is a lot of wood on the market that hasn't been dried properly after treating and is creating significant problems - builders and sellers are having acute reactions from handling and working with tanalised wood eg face and hand rashes, breathing problems. If someone is having an acute reaction then there will also longer term chronic issues as the chemicals lessen but are still present.

    Also, tanalised wood lasts a long time, but not forever, so eventually those chemicals are going to be in the ground or somewhere.

    Not sure if what we do here - tanalising - is the same as the CCA you are talking about in Oz.

    And as mentioned the treatment process itself is highly polluting, which is a pretty good reason to not use it too.


    Grandtippler, what's the fence for?
     
  10. Duckpond

    Duckpond Junior Member

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    I think the cca pine will break down eventually 10+ yrs, and release the arsnic into the ground. Be creative and see what recyclable materials are available in your area. I am looking at using old blast hole or bore hole drilling rods. 3 meters long, 90mm diamiter and 5 mm thick. THe drillers throw them out when they wear out so they can be got for free. Otherwise old railway trackis pretty good too. Cost is always an issue, but if you spend extra on over engineering something then it will last forever
     

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