Thread: cypress pine

Dunno a lot, but do know that cypress is a resinous timber that is naturally durable & resistant to rot.

Same as different varieties of eucalypt have different properties I guess.

"Queensland Cypress", as sold by Bunnings for pickets & fence posts is a pretty hard fine grained timber that planes up a treat, I have made a small tabletop and done plenty of scrollsawn projects in this timber. Love the smell too.


Cheers................Sean

Well termites dont like the natural oils in cypress But that doest meen that you should put it straight in the ground.

Over time the oils dry out and termites will decide that they will eat it too.

Some years ago I dug up cypress posts that had been in the ground over 90 years, and reused them - good as new. Generally, cypress is not suseptable to rot or termites, however, that said, there are two common cypress in Queensland, one being better than the other.

Another point, the cypress available today tends to be from younger trees than when I was a lad, therefore, in my opinion, not as rot and termite resistant as "the good old days".

To be safe, I would treat cypress going in the ground.

You may get away with not treating cypress in the ground for longer than other types of timber but it would depend on the conditions it is under.

I would treat it before using it straight into the ground or better yet set it up on concrete footings.

Cheers

The same properties that make cypress durable also make it difficult to pressure treat. The chemicals just dont soak into the wood like they do with pine or similar timber.
If you want maximum durablilty use the ground treated grade pine, the untreated cypress will last reasonably well, but untreated pine will almost dissolve in front of your eyes if used in the ground.

Cheers

Ian

Originally Posted by mudguts

Hi all,

Could someone more knowlegeable than myself (shouldn't be too hard) explain to me why you can put cypress pine untreated into the ground, yet radiata,or the like, needs to be treated. I thought both would be succeptable to the elements. (but you know what thought thought.)

cheers.

Check out this site

or this one
hope they are of some help.

timber treatments arent particulary enviro friendly (leaching chemicals into soil etc). Best not treat n my opinion....