Thread: ecowood is warping

Them's the breaks!! Sad but true.

Did you get a full set of specifications and warnings when you purchased or did some clueless salesperson convince you of its wonderful properties???

Is Ecowood the same as Thermowood?

EcoWood is merely a registered name for a type of timber treatment. Was your timber sold to you as dry or green?

I used to have a letterbox made out of treated timber (not sure if it was the same treatment though). It made a great hygrometer. The lid especially would react really well to small changes in relative humidity.

Peter

I made some outdoor benches out of 75mm treated pine sleepers last year and they warped in the heat also. I now think of it as 'character' .

Originally Posted by KevM

EcoWood is merely a registered name for a type of timber treatment. Was your timber sold to you as dry or green?

It is described here: Outdoor Timber
It implies to me that it is dry.

It's pine. Pine is very porous (that's why it is used to make treated timber) and it will give up or take in water at the drop of a hat, and that's why it is warping.

Timber preservative treatment does nothing to stop this movement of water.

To minimise warping:
Select boards carefully and try for ones with nice straight, quartersawn grain.
Let them air dry for a while (a year per inch of thickness is the rule of thumb), or at least give them a few weeks in the garage to even out their water content.
Design (whatever it is) to allow for wood movement.
If painting, paint all surfaces to make sure that all sides loose/gain moisture at about the same rate.

I'm rather new to timber. Would a hard wood have been better at avoiding warping?

Do you know of a comparison of the properties of various kinds of wood and what roles they are good for?

Hardwoods can be better at not warping...but some are notorious for warping...

www.timber.net.au - Species

It'll mostly depend on what is available in your area.

I have had this happen to me. I bought some 240 by 45 mm treated pine that I was going to use for the stringers in a set of stairs. Unfortunately I let the timber sit for a month by which time it had cupped and warped. I took it back and outdoor timber re treated it and "straigtened" it for me free of charge. They said that I had to use it pretty well straight away. I have heard of other chippies who will nail timber to a straight section, such as barge boards when they are not going to use the timber straight away. I don't know how long you let the timber stand before using it or how well it is braced in your gate, but outdoor timber can catch you unaware.....

ecowood is crap, deosnt even burn well, its grown quick to sell quick, wont hold up to much anyways, best steered clear of, go to a decent sawmill if theres any left and get some decent hardwood or at least older growth ( 30 years +) plantation pine..

the #### warps cos its cut young, any kind of timber will warp but much less so if its fully grown, plantation trees never get close to that...any kind of timber will warp when drying unless its stacked straight...

try cutting 200 year old stringbark and 50 year old stringybark into 1 inch boards at 2 m lenghts....bet ya the younger thinner tree will warp more readily than the older thicker one...cells not fully formed....all warpy it goes..some trees like celery top pine wont warp but even the younger ones cut are 400 years old...!

only a goose would expect young timber not to warp...

Originally Posted by soloist

They said that I had to use it pretty well straight away. I have heard of other chippies who will nail timber to a straight section, such as barge boards when they are not going to use the timber straight away. I don't know how long you let the timber stand before using it or how well it is braced in your gate, but outdoor timber can catch you unaware.....

I used it immediately. That was 2 months ago. The gate is 7 vertical planks of 140x35. There are 3 cross-bars of the same material. All pieces were painted before assembling. The gaps between the planks were sealed with silicone. The plank farthest from the hinge has bowed about 1 cm at the top of the bottom. Some others have twisted a bit. This seemed to happen suddenly during the recent heat wave.

Being new to this I naively assumed that wood sold for outdoor purposes would cope better with the weather. If it gets worse during summer I'll have to build it again with something else.

Originally Posted by als123

If it gets worse during summer I'll have to build it again with something else.

try n find some decent recycled hardwood, older the better...or at least a better species....

Hello Als123,
EcoWood is a brand name for a treated pine timber product.
The treatment is designed to make the timber resistant to rotting & insect attack.
It offers no protection from the sun.
If you want UV protection, you will need to seal the timber with a suitable oil or paint.
I would recommend an oil or lanolin based timber finish, such as Cooee TimberTreat.
This will help prevent the timber from shrinking, or in turn expanding due to moisture fluctuation.

It should also be noted that the timber may have warped due to insufficient fixings or excessive span.

If you had any questions as to suitable use, the staff at Outdoor Timber will have been more than capable to offer advice.
Thanks, Garrie