treating scaffold boards ?

[gingerneil]

I am due to pick up some scaffold boards in the next few days to build some raised beds. These are 'used' .... but are 'weathered'
Any ideas if I should be looking to treat them before using them ? Any tips on what to use ? I assume standard fence preserve would be bad news for the veg that will be living in the beds ?

[jeannine]

The 'green' paint companies like Ecos do wood preservers and coloured paints you can use on wood that are completely safe to eat your dinner off and they are suprisingly cheap.

[rustylady]

Scaffold boards are usually well seasoned and shouldn't need treating with anything. Unless you use creosote or other nasty chemicals you won't be preserving the wood, only making it look pretty so I can't really see the point. Any wood that is in constant contact with damp soil will eventually rot, but scaffold boards (or deals) are a much better bet than new softwood bought from the DIY stores.

[chuffa]

Hi gingerneil, i use scaffold boards on my lottie, some new some old. Scaffold boards are made for use in all weathers so i see no reason to preserve them. They should last from between 5-10 years from new if not longer. If they are screwd together instead of nailed, if they need to be replaced because of rotting, they are easy to replace.

[gingerneil]

OK - thanks for the reply.
As suggested on another thread, I intend to screw them together. I assume 'standard' galvanised screws are OK, and the wood wont split ?

[esrikandan]

I made some 3ft square beds today. I used brass screws - I got some at Wickes for this purpose. I also drilled pilot holes to ease the screw in and avoid the wood splitting.

[pigletwillie]

I have over 25 scaffolding board raised beds. None of the timber is treated and they were just nailed together with 100mm (4') nails. The metal end cappings are left on and that helps to prevent splitting and does offer a little protection to the end grain of the boards.

The oldest beds are 4 years old now and are in good order.

[janeyo]

Searched for treating raised beds as we are redoing ours. They have been a bit of an eyesore to be honest and OH wants me to paint them. Can I use a shed preserver like green or a coloured one? Or will it run off like the preserver did on my chicken coop and look worse?

I was thinking of one of the wilkos ones like this

http://www.wilkinsonplus.com/invt/0125818

[lynda66]

i would treat them ......... to a bar of choccie each

[FionaH]

Scaffold boards are usually well seasoned and shouldn't need treating with anything. Unless you use creosote or other nasty chemicals you won't be preserving the wood, only making it look pretty so I can't really see the point. Any wood that is in constant contact with damp soil will eventually rot, but scaffold boards (or deals) are a much better bet than new softwood bought from the DIY stores.

I did some searching on this. Going to get my wood in a few days when Mr H gets his A**e in gear, (dont get me started on that one!)
I could find very little that will work with plants and not leach out. Pressure treating seems the only way. As RL says above it will rot, but will be good for about 5 years so I am just going to go with that.

ps I told Mr H that 8ft boards wont fit in the car but would he listen? Noooooo. What good is an iq that would get him into mensa when he has no common sense at all?

[emilymup]

We built raised beds using old scaffolding boards about 5 years ago and didn't treat them. Beds have been absolutely fine except we are going to have to replace at least a couple of boards this spring as they are crumbling away!! One of them has got yukky woodworm. I don't think I would treat the replacement scaffold boards either though!!

[FionaH]

Mine are going to be softwood I think which isnt ideal, but at 87p for 8ft I'm not too fussy

[shirlthegirl43]

I gave the outsides of mine a lick of fence preservative. It is a water-based one that does not harm plants - to be honest I didn't even think about it, just went ahead and made them look better.