# Preservation of wood decks



## Texas Traveler (Jul 7, 2009)

I got a shock this morning when I found our old home second floor wood deck on a sale brochure about the product Stockholm pine tar.

http://stores.shop.ebay.com/NoxudolUSA__W0QQ_armrsZ1

The second picture on the sales pictures is our wood deck 8 years old as good as new.

They are good people, if you are in a humid area they are people you need to know.


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## mtngun (Jul 7, 2009)

I heard about Stockholm tar on -- believe it or not -- a bulldozer forum. Some people swear by it as a threadlocker and antisieze for fasteners on bulldozers. I have been meaning to try some, for fasteners on my 4wd which are forever either rattling loose or else become so corroded that they have to be removed with a torch. 

Your link went to an ebay store with no sales brochure that I could see. I'd like to see a pic of your deck.


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## Texas Traveler (Jul 7, 2009)

mtngun said:


> I heard about Stockholm tar on -- believe it or not -- a bulldozer forum. Some people swear by it as a threadlocker and antisieze for fasteners on bulldozers. I have been meaning to try some, for fasteners on my 4wd which are forever either rattling loose or else become so corroded that they have to be removed with a torch.
> 
> Your link went to an ebay store with no sales brochure that I could see. I'd like to see a pic of your deck.



The picture is second one at the bottom when you click on the pine tar bucket.


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## mtngun (Jul 7, 2009)

Not much detail there, but ....... what can you tell us about it ? Is the deck made of pressure treated, or redwood, or just standard 2x lumber ? 

I'm curious because I have a generous deck and a lot of exposed wood on my house. I am also planning to build a wood shed/barn using my CSM'd lumber, that'll probably have some exposed beams and some wood siding. So far I have used conventional stains.


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## Texas Traveler (Jul 8, 2009)

mtngun said:


> Not much detail there, but ....... what can you tell us about it ? Is the deck made of pressure treated, or redwood, or just standard 2x lumber ?
> 
> I'm curious because I have a generous deck and a lot of exposed wood on my house. I am also planning to build a wood shed/barn using my CSM'd lumber, that'll probably have some exposed beams and some wood siding. So far I have used conventional stains.


 It is pine pressure treated & on the North side of the house.

In the winter & spring it stayed wet. in the summers extreme heat it twisted & warped.
Being retired & with a fixed income, I was desperate for a solution. The deck was about 5 years old & already looked like it needed replacement

I put the pine tar on straight first it dried for 2 days, then second coat mixed with half & half with spar varnish.

I know it looks ugly as sin but the boards straighten out & the cracks closed up. I had to use walk boards the first summer but it weathered out a brown color the next year & just as stable as rock.

One of the homes rear door was at the deck, the second one at a rear bedroom. More or less a fire escape
The home built into the hill-side put most of the homes second floor at ground level at the rear of the home.
Being surrounded almost by 360 acres of woods & on a hillside
I was limited by what I could do in fencing & access to the home itself.
over the years I had trucked in over 3000 yards of fill dirt at a hefty price.
I had paved the ally put a double carport at the rear plus a concrete patio for a safer rear entry.


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## mtngun (Jul 8, 2009)

Stockholm tar is an interesting alternative to stain or copper treatments. Especially to those of us who mill our own lumber and would like to use it for outdoor applications.

After all, it is a proven finish for wooden ships.

The downside is that it is expensive and I would probably have to order it. But, if it works......

My deck is pressure treated pine. It seems like most of the PT lumber is made with pine. Pine soaks up the chemical well, but it is weak and warps easily. I stained my PT deck, but the stain wears off quickly in high traffic areas.

I'm thinking in the future I may use my milled doug fir with a stockholm tar finish. I might thin the stockholm tar, though, so it would soak in deeper, dry faster, and maybe produce a lighter color.


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## Texas Traveler (Jul 8, 2009)

mtngun said:


> Stockholm tar is an interesting alternative to stain or copper treatments. Especially to those of us who mill our own lumber and would like to use it for outdoor applications.
> 
> After all, it is a proven finish for wooden ships.
> 
> ...


 If you put it on in the heat & the wood is dry it will soak up straight pine tar like a spong.

Noxadal has a lighter pine tar color mixed with BLO, but you could do that yourself.

Also there is a 4 part soup mix you could do yourself such as 1 part pine-tar 1 part turpintine 1 part BLO 1 pint japan dryer. It is a varnish of sort that the wooden ships used.
I did flat out ask the seller if he would lower the price & they did . I got a 5 gal bucket shipped for 250.00. 

I would be careful using BLO because of sealing the wood blocking any more pine tar from soaking in.


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## mrlynx (Jul 8, 2009)

Tar is a very good wood treatment but is has its downsides also.
It takes very long time to dry.
It can get a little sticky when its warm weather.
It will always smell when its warm so it can only be used outside.
It can be a little bit tricky to apply.
But other than that its a proven solution to many problems.
Here in sweden its rather cheap and can be bought everywhere you can by paint.
I think it cost something like 6$/L 

//Robert


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## Texas Traveler (Jul 8, 2009)

mrlynx said:


> Tar is a very good wood treatment but is has its downsides also.
> It takes very long time to dry.
> It can get a little sticky when its warm weather.
> It will always smell when its warm so it can only be used outside.
> ...


 I did not have any drying trouble here, the pine soaked it up like a thirsty mule sucking up water. But we have weeks of 100 plus degree summers 

Sticky is the reason I would use the home made varnish to quicken drying time on the second coat..

The smell is not bad in fact I love the smell of pine.

Being tricky to apply, because of the thirsty wood & it just takes time with throwaway brushes or maybe a hand spray rig.

I did take notice the seller has had several price increases, but he has negotiated prices with me. And they have asked for pictures to them sell their product.


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## Texas Traveler (Jul 8, 2009)

To be honest about the love for a product that works for me is this & using using pine tar for stain & refinishing other wood products military Gun stocks

I posted this on another board.

I got to playing with a couple hundred Aussie LIA1 butt stocks & handguards a few years back.
I had bought out Tapcos inventory that came from Century.

Sorting out the genuine blonde ones that sell good for Joe Poyer lookalikes for a really classy look for the L1A1 FAL.

Most of the coachwood stock sets sold off pretty fast, even the hundred or so British laminate walnut handguards went super fast.

That left me with some dogs, believe me I tried every thing in the book to get the stocks looking right.
Every thing, clean them, stripped them, steam them & heated them. 

Leather stain all colors, minwax stain, BLO, & even bleach.
I had all colors of the rainbow plus just a bunch of gray fence post.

Finally as a lark I took the stain-free best of the stocks & dumped them in a tray of pine tar.
I let them soak for 4 or 5 hours then wiped them off, the stocks had the look of new Aussie coachwood stocks.

The small hairline cracks at any either end of the wood were closed up & the overall med dark color was as even as could be. The former dents in the wood were hard to spot.

So in hindsight I got a completely new outlook on treating stocks before ever putting BLO on one.
Before you knock it, try it you just might like the idea.



__________________


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