Durability of pine timber

[AHPP]

Nice. How did you weigh it? Or was it just the forklift creaking?

[Squaredy]

50 minutes ago, AHPP said:

Nice. How did you weigh it? Or was it just the forklift creaking?

Well I realised it was heavy just from handling it, even just offcuts, so I threw a small piece in a barrel of water to see if it floated, which it did, but only just.

 

To be accurate I took a piece which was cut square edge and measured it, calculated the volume, then popped it on my scales.  The piece was 0.0495 of a cubic foot and weighed 2.95 pounds.

[Squaredy]

On 22/03/2025 at 21:09, AHPP said:

Let's see some pictures please.

Finally I remembered to take some pictures of the installed worktop.

[devon TWiG]

I am pretty sure that it is Monterey pine , the grey streaks is a kind of spalting that affects the sapwood , a bit like blue / green stain in whiter softwoods , often hidden by tanalising ...

[muldonach]

Well I hope that those who reckon Scots Pine has natural durability are correct - the winter storms brought down some big granny pines with good millable lengths but no mill near us will take it.

A local school wanted sleepers for the kids garden plots so we undertook to provide them - a local commercial mill has also offered to pressure treat them.

We still have a good pile to mill and have a load of 4x2 as offcuts from producing the 8x4 sleepers so next projext is a timber drying shed

[openspaceman]

1 hour ago, muldonach said:

a local commercial mill has also offered to pressure treat them.

One of the things w saw with scots pine stobs and posts is that the sapwood absorbed water borne preservative well but the heartwood did not, such that over many years the middle of the posts rotted out but the outer layers (which actually got an overdose of preservative  because of the way the chemical was measured in and out of the treatment cylinder) did not rot.

[AHPP]

Consider whether the pressure treating really adds a lot to the product, whether it’s worth the hassle of getting them done and whether the benefits outweigh the drawbacks of putting chemicals on stuff that’s for children. 
 

I heard something very interesting about preservative uptake the other week btw but I’ll save it for after the argument someone’s no doubt going to give me for being gay about the chemicals. 

[peds]

Hard agree, obviously. Gaybo.

[Big J]

The sawmill I am contracting into at the moment cuts/processes exclusively Scots Pine. About 57,000 cubic metres last year, apparently. They pressure treat almost everything they cut and rate it for 20 years durability in contact with the ground. The pressure treatment only permeates the sapwood, so the heartwood must be naturally really durable.

 

It's maybe worth considering though that Swedish grown pine is considerably slower grown than UK sourced timber. It's even notable that pine grown locally to us (in the SE) is faster grown than the premium grade stuff that they buy in and process from the middle of Sweden (Dalarna). 

 

Either way, it is really surprisingly heavy and dense compared to any other softwood I've dealt with, and once planed, is quite beautiful too.

[Squaredy]

2 hours ago, Big J said:

The sawmill I am contracting into at the moment cuts/processes exclusively Scots Pine. About 57,000 cubic metres last year, apparently. They pressure treat almost everything they cut and rate it for 20 years durability in contact with the ground. The pressure treatment only permeates the sapwood, so the heartwood must be naturally really durable.

 

It's maybe worth considering though that Swedish grown pine is considerably slower grown than UK sourced timber. It's even notable that pine grown locally to us (in the SE) is faster grown than the premium grade stuff that they buy in and process from the middle of Sweden (Dalarna). 

 

Either way, it is really surprisingly heavy and dense compared to any other softwood I've dealt with, and once planed, is quite beautiful too.

And is it really resinous and sticky?  That is the only real drawback I have found with the pine I have handled recently.  It planes fine, but sanding is almost impossible.