Pressure-Treated Lumber: 

 

(Part One)

How It All Began   

The Backyard Industry Has Gone Craaaazy.

If you’re reading this, chances are you’re doing research.

You’ve already figured out that building a deck isn’t as simple as calling a contractor and saying, “I want a 12×16.”

There are a lot of decisions to make.

Pressure-treated,Cedar,Composite,PVC, IPE

And that’s just the beginning

There are hundreds of products, dozens of manufacturers, and enough colours to make your head spin.

By now you’ve probably read a bunch of articles.

Pressure-treated versus composite.

Composite versus PVC.

PVC versus pressure-treated.

Round and round you go.

Some of it feels like school.

Some of it feels like a sales pitch.

By this point your brain is running on all cylinders.

The little hamster is going crazy on that little wheel trying to figure all of this out. 

And here I am…

About to write another article.

Great.

More of the same.

I’ll try to sound clever.

I’ll throw in some facts.

Maybe a joke or two.

Maybe you’ll even make it to the end.

Then I stopped for a second.

I’ve been working with wood for almost 30 years.

Regular lumber.

Pressure-treated lumber.

And honestly…

I know about as much as everyone else.

I know the process.

Put the wood into a big cylinder.

Pull a vacuum.

Force chemicals into it under pressure.

Take it out.

Let it dry.

I know the basics

Don’t burn it.

Don’t use it as firewood.

If you get a splinter, take it out, clean it up, you’ll probably be fine.

If you catch your kid licking the deck once, don’t panic.

If he’s doing it twice a day… you’ve got a different problem.

Wear a mask when you’re cutting it.

Pretty standard stuff.

But then I got curious.

Not the kind of curious I usually get.

Let’s be honest…

How interesting can pressure-treated lumber really be?

It’s wood.

You cut down a tree.

You cut it into smaller pieces.

You build stuff.

End of story.

I figured I’d spend an hour reading about where pressure-treated lumber came from.

Write a quick Deck Talk.

Post it.

Maybe somebody would read it.

Maybe they wouldn’t.

I sat down at the computer.

Typed one question.

“When and where did pressure-treated lumber begin?”

“When and where did pressure-treated lumber begin?”

That one question was like pulling on a loose thread.

The whole sweater came apart.

All of a sudden I wasn’t reading about wood anymore.

I was reading about Great Britain.

The Industrial Revolution.

Fortunes being made.

Fortunes being lost.

Inventors racing each other.

Partnerships.

Betrayals.

World economics.

I’m sure there were love stories in there somewhere too.

There always are.

Now picture Europe in the late 1700s and early 1800s.

The whole continent is one giant chessboard.

France wants to dominate Europe.

Austria wants to stop France.

Prussia wants more power.

Russia wants influence.

Spain is trying to hold onto its empire.

Portugal is protecting its colonies.

Everybody is fighting somebody.

And then there’s Britain.

Britain plays a different game.

Instead of trying to conquer Europe…

It rules the oceans.

It controls trade.

It builds the strongest navy in the world.

Its empire stretches across Canada, India, Australia, parts of Africa and the Caribbean.

While Europe is busy fighting wars…

Britain is building.

Factories.

Ships.

Canals.

Railways.

Mines.

The Industrial Revolution is in full swing.

Everything needs wood.

Ships need wood.

Mines need wood.

Railways need wood.

Buildings need wood.

And there’s one problem.

Wood keeps rotting.

They’re spending fortunes cutting it down…

Hauling it…

Using it…

Watching it decay…

Then replacing it all over again.

Nobody likes wasting money.

That’s where our story begins.

Next Deck Talk: The Race Begins.

We’ll finally meet the people crazy enough to believe they could stop wood from rotting.

Before we get there, I’m curious.

When you started reading this, what did you think pressure-treated lumber was? Did you know the story behind it, or did you think it was just another piece of wood from the lumber yard?

And while we’re at it, if there’s another backyard topic you’ve always wondered about, let me know. If it sends me down another rabbit hole like this one did, it might become the next Deck Talk.

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