Treating Plant

How Wood Is Pressure Treated
The charge of wood is sealed in the treating cylinder and a preliminary vacuum is applied to remove the air from the cylinder and as much as possible from the wood.

Preservative or fire retardant chemical is pumped into the cylinder without admitting air.
After the cylinder is filled, pressure is applied. This forces the chemical deep into the cells of the wood until the required retention of chemical is obtained.
When the pressure period is completed, the chemical is withdrawn from the cylinder.
A short final vacuum is applied to reduce chemical dripping.
Fire retardant lumber is kiln dried.
Newly preservative treated lumber remains on a covered concrete pad until chemical fixation occurs.

Preservative Treated Wood
Lumber treated with preservative chemicals is protected from attack by termites and fungi, two of wood's most destructive enemies. To replace the timber they destroy annually would take 360,000 acres of forest land. At Requarth Lumber we sell NatureWood and K33 from Osmose Wood Preserving. Osmose NatureWood preserved wood is a new product being offered as an alternative to traditional arsenic based treated wood products. NatureWood preserved wood products provide retailers, treaters, consumers, builders and architects an option in their selection of pressure treated wood products. It carries a limited lifetime warranty against rot and decay.

The preservation technology in NatureWood products has been commercially used since 1912 throughout Europe, Asia, and the United States. For many backyard and commercial projects such as decks, fences and landscaping, NatureWood products are an ideal alternative to traditional pressure treated wood.

The NatureWood preservation is a waterborne, alkaline copper quaternary preservative system developed to provide long-term protection of wood exposed in exterior applications. The NatureWood system is based on the well-established effectiveness of copper combined with an organic quaternary compound and is applied to wood by pressure treatment. Copper and quaternary compounds are effective fungicides and termiticides. Together they provide protection from a broad spectrum of fungi and termites. Quaternary compounds are commonly used as swimming pool additives, disinfectants and sanitizers and have antibacterial properties.

NatureWood products are similar to traditional treated wood products - both are pressure treated long-lasting, durable, clean to the touch and have no objectionable odor. More than a decade of field test performance and commercial use worldwide establishes the proven effectiveness of the NatureWood preservative technology against termites and fungal decay.

Fire Retardant Treated Wood
Requarth Lumber sells fire retardant treated (FRT) wood with D-BLAZE®, a well established product with a superior record of performance manufactured by Chemical Specialties, Inc It has been independently tested for strength in conditions of high temperature and humidity and exhibits extremely low corrosive properties. In fact, the performance of D-BLAZE¨ meets or exceeds the standards of major building codes, insurance rating bureaus, and national organizations involved in certifying fire retardant building materials.

FRT wood has a long history of safe and effective use. The New York City Building Code first approved FRT wood construction in 1905. Because FRT wood systems often feature lower in-place costs than other noncombustible-classified materials, demand for the product remains strong for projects at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, local universities, hotels and motels, shop-ping centers and malls, hospitals and nursing homes, and other governmental and commercial facilities. Currently, over 10.6 million cubic feet of FRT wood and 100 million square feet of FRT plywood are installed in the United States each year.

Technical information on hygroscopicity, corrosion, strength, specifications, approvals, and testing is available from Requarth Lumber or from CSI at 800-421-8661

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