Porch Columns

[slong1958]

My home has 6" sq 1x6x9 pine porch columns and they have began to rot at the bottom after 17 years which is not bad. I'm wanting a bigger look and I'm not wanting to spend a fortune on this. I'm thinking about making them out of treated 2x10x10 lumber is there anything I need to do special with using treated lumber. All suggestions will be deeply appreciated.

Thanks

[Tom King]

Buy kiln dried treated if you can find it.  There are some places that sell it. I wish I had a source here.  If you can't find kiln dried, put some aside for a year or so until it drys out, and finishes doing what moving it's going to do.   Pick through piles, and get clear boards with straight grain.  The ones like this will probably have some bark edges, so pick wider than what you need to end up with.

 

I actually do this all the time, and when we go to get lumber for almost anything, we'll pick through the 2x12, and 2x10 piles to find good boards. It helps a lot to have two helpers.  I sit where I can sight the boards, and they do the handling. Rejects go on the ground or floor, and we restack them when we finish.   I always have some drying, and use it a lot.  It holds modern paint just fine once it's dry.  We actually even hand pick every piece even if we are framing a house.  With an efficient system, and a couple of helpers, it goes fairly easily.

 

I do the same thing for regular Yellow Pine 2x lumber to select the clear pieces.  I keep some in storage, not so much for drying, but to let it do what moving it's going to do (the treated stuff will move too).  Then we mill stuff like door jambs out of it.