Tanalised wooden gates are essentially vacume treated timber cut into shape to make up wooden gates. The vacume process using toxic chemicals to imprgnate right down to the cells of the wood ensures that the tanalised wood can be used both indoors and outdoors and last for many years with little or no preventative methods being needed to provide any extra protection to the timber from the weather or other possible contaminents.
Alternatively, there are other methods of treating timber for long lasting applications outside. The green tint is not the desirable finish in many cases and high quality wood stains tend not to stick as well as they are designed to when being applied over the top of tanalised timber. Tanalised timber is asily noticeable from distributors of timber products for its green tint in colour, it can be of a rough sawn finish, however you can find gate manufacturers who do supply smooth finished tanalised gates to hang in driveways or be used as attractive wooden garden gates.
After some time the pale green coloration does subside and become a more suitable honey brown but die to the the treatment process still doesnt react too well with other color coatings. There are other methods of treating timber suitable for outside use and even large construction where the timbers preservative value can last an initial 60 years. Its a good idea to consider the alternatives as burning tanalised wood releases arsenic, a cumulative poison, into the immediate atmosphere. Whereas theres a copper azole formula pressure treatment as an alternative to the arsenic type tanalising process which provides an excellent protection barrier from causes of decay to ensure long life. There’s a water based version too which is in wide use in construction uses close to agricultural countryside uses such as field gates.
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