A Weather-Proof Deck

(Page 14 of 14)

June/July 1996
By John Vivian 
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Wear a dust mask while cutting any kind of PT. Shower or wash head, hair, and hands, and launder clothing afterwards. Don't burn scraps in the wood stove; they don't qualify as toxic waste, so you can send them to the dump. Better, use them for steps or pathways in the flower garden (see "Natural Paths and Walkways" on the next page).

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As you know, I am in the process of repairing a deck built of (40-year-guaranteed) PT that is showing fungus damage after (only) 26 years in the weather. So I remain unconvinced by industry and EPA assertions that the chemicals in pressure-treated wood don't leach out, and (in a seeming self-contradiction) that if they did, they'd be diluted to harmlessness. PT contains arsenic, and didn't Agatha Christie make a career cooking up mysteries where someone was poisoned by a slow buildup of that very poison? A little Arsenic and Old Decks, anyone?

I wouldn't grow fruit or vegetables, locate a kids play area, graze or house livestock, or put a dog run within 100 feet downhill of a new-built PT deck. Maybe in a decade...

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