Pressure treated wood warning DO NOT USE!!!

[thewanderlustking]

So we probably all know that older pressure treated wood contained arsenic and other potentially dangerous chemicals.  Don't eat the wood, yada yada.  And modern PT wood is much safer.  From a health standpoint it potentially still isn't the best stuff.  But if one is ignoring that aspect... I was about consider utilizing it for bracing my roof.  Seemed to be the perfect choice.  Sealed away where it could be exposed to moisture.  Inexpensive, strong, etc.

 

I was thinking about how crazily my steel beams were corroded in the roof and then I had the thought and googled "Does pressure treated wood react with aluminum?" and I got his:

 

Does Treated Wood Corrode Aluminum? Yes. Most of the new chemical treatments contain copper and should never come in direct contact with aluminum. Total failure caused by corrosion can occur in less than a year.  

 

This actually explains a LOT.  The previous owner was a contractor and said he had done a bunch of repairs to the roof.  But stuff quickly has gone from okay to bad, then worse.  The repairs I am assuming he did, some were actually pretty well thought out and should have solved the roof issues.  Ignoring the AC unit being glued on with 20 layers of crap...  I am blaming the previous-previous owners for that.  By the time I got it, and same for when he did, it already had layers on layers and was simpler to try to fix it, then to redo it completely.  

 

Anyways all the places that had lots of pinholes were right where the bracing was.  

 

I figured I would toss this out there so nobody else makes the same mistake the P.O. did, and I almost did.  I have seen a few RV repair projects use this.  Like somebody rebuilding a door with it.    

[linda s]

I don't know what's available in the southeast, but any lightweight strong wood could be used. Sealed with a fiberglass epoxy it can last

many years or maybe forever. Where I live on the west coast we have tons of redwood, cedar and fir. All lightweight, super strong and naturally water resistant. Archeologists are still digging up carvings made by native American with these woods after hundreds of years in the ground, completely undamaged

Linda S