This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.
Home made wood preserver
Uzzy
Posts: 15
Has anyone got any recipes for home made wood preserver. I have some path edging to replace and have heard use of old engine oil. Does this need to be mixed with petrol / diesel or paraffin. I cant see the point of using expensive things like Cuprinol as only path edging. Would creosote work ? how close could I plant ?
Regards
0
Posts
Assuming the wood is clean and dry, just brush on a mixture of ordinary olive oil mixed with the juice of a lemon per litre. That's what I use for furniture but OH used up some old rapeseed oil on the wood bought for our new raised beds and that's working fine so far.
It's cheap clean and not smelly. Do it with the wood leaning up against something like a shed or fence so you can see that you've done a thorough coating on all sided and then let it soak in for a day or two before putting in place. This way you can also judge if it needs a second coat.
I think creosote got banned didn't it? The alternative these days is called creocote
. I wouldn't use petrol/diesel etc as it would leech into the soil and kill everything.
Why not use a standard wood preserver?
Wouldnt it be better to buy the correct product, not expensive and probably better than putting petrol or diesel on your garden.
http://www.wilko.com/invt/0074038
I have used Cuprinol. It is expensive, not always available in a colour that suits and, being water based, flakes off or fades or grows algae.
We use dit in our Belgian veggie plot for the planks for our raised beds but, as they rotted, we replaced them with pressure treated roofing beams which I oiled as above. Looked a lot better and worked a treat because the oil repels water but doesn't affect plants.