FORT Fencing
Agricultural & Equine Fencing
Blog - Doing it Right, Get The Best Treated Timber!
07 August 2022
Fencing and soil retaining walls are expensive is and you want them to last – what makes a difference, but doesn’t cost the earth?
Quite simply, making sure that the timber has been preservative treated correctly. If the timber is above ground (featheredge, arris rails, capping rails, etc) then it needs to be treated to User Class 3, UC3, or higher (exterior use). If the timber is in the ground it needs to be treated to User Class 4, UC4, (ground to air contact).
This is where most fences and walls will fail, due to bugs and fungus which collect at the ground, leading to rot within the posts & sleepers.
So, how can I make sure that the fence posts and sleepers will last?
The first method is to fit Post Savers, heat shrinkable sleeves that are lined with a meltable, bituminous liner. These are torched on, at the ground/air contact point, protecting the post. These are ideal when one doesn't know the treatment level of that post or if it is not to User Class 3. The best answer is to have UC4 products. These are usually quite easy to identify because they have been incised.
What does ‘Incised’ mean?
The products are partially kiln dried, to take out a lot of the residual moisture and then processed through an incising machine. This puts thousands of small incisions into the surfaces of the timber and these allow the timber preservative to penetrate further into the timber during the treatment process. You can easily see these marks once the treatment process is completed (see image 2 as an example), which gradually fade out over time as the timber goes grey. This is a great way to see that the posts & sleeprs have been treated to the highest standard.
How do I know this really works?
The timber industry has ongoing research to check on the performance of treated products. There is a large test site where posts are put in the ground and then checked every few years. Here are the latest results after 7 years. As you can see, properly treated, incised posts are performing really well, with almost no sign of deterioration.
So, in summary, do it right first time – use the proper treated timber and you’ll get the right result!