A DIY Way To Prevent Rot In Your Lumber
By TIM CARTER
Tribune Content Agency
Is there some other safe DIY treatment I can do to prevent the wood from being destroyed by wood rot and insects? I’m chemically sensitive and don’t want to rely on the normal treated lumber from lumber yards. Is there a downside to DIY treatment if it exists?
website. Go to go.askthebuilder.com/borate.
Can you settle a disagreement? I told my wife it’s a good idea to build a shed on a slab larger than the shed. This provides a concrete walkway around the shed, and I can lean tools up against the shed, keeping them out of the dirt. My spouse thinks my plan is foolhardy. She maintains that driving rain may leak under the wall into the shed. She also thinks the wood walls and siding of the shed will rot faster. I’m sure you’ll see the brilliance of my idea. I’ve been happily married for just over 44 years. There are many reasons for that, and one of them is the art of listening. Don’t dig in so deep that you can’t see the wisdom of another solution.
It turns out that building a shed or any other building on a slab that’s larger than the outer walls of the structure is a very bad idea. Oh, I’m sure you can make all sorts of arguments about amazing caulks that would stop leaks, slanting the exposed concrete so it drains, and other flimsy debate points.
The art of keeping water out of buildings is ancient. My guess is builders thousands of years ago looked at how animals stayed dry. There’s a reason the feathers of birds overlap in a certain way.
Your roof shingles overlap one another to shed water. Clapboard siding overlaps one on top of another to do the same. The first piece of siding material on your shed should overlap the outer edge of the concrete slab so no water leaks under the wall.
I’ve got a great illustration of how this overlap should happen, as well as great exterior wall-building videos on sheds at my website waiting for you. Go to go.askthebuilder.com/overlap.