Painting treated pine

[Bowdo]

I have pole construction house with a large treated pine pole right in the middle of the living room. It looks pretty ghastly and am thinking of painting it. Does anyone know if paint sticks to treated pine or does it need some special sealers.

[craigb]

I've painted plenty of TP but it's always been outside.

The most I've ever done is to prime it first, but the exterior acrylic paints will stick to it without primer.

[Gumby]

I think painting it would look worse. Why not leave it as a feature ? Give it some varnish or something.

[bitingmidge]

I'm with Gumby... a rustic bit of painted timber could be a shocker.

Seal it with a satin varnish, stain it first... I shellacked the legs of my fumping bench and they didn't look too horrible, sort of like sea-sick shellacked pine really.

Cheers,

P

[Sir Stinkalot]

Why not box it out so it will be a plastered square post .... perhaps incorporate some feature shelves or dvd/cd storage.

Hey .... they are only suggestions .... I havent seen the thing :D

[Marc]

Of course without knowing what the rest of the house looks like, it is hard to say, but I agree that if you have lots of varnished polished timber, the post would look nice varnished as well....or boxed in something varnished why not.

Depending on the amount of green in the treated pine, if you only varnish it, the colour will be a bit hmmm. Try the following on an off cut if you have one.
Get a decent size roof plumber gas torch (jumbo size) and give the timber a good toast, how much is up to your taste. Once cold, scrub the charcoal off with a scourer, the roughest and biggest you can find, it sells for a few dollars in Woolies to clean barbecues. After you scrubbed the black off, but not completely, leave a bit of black here and there, dust it off and varnish. Try different burning depth and different scrubbing and see which one you like.
Remember that the TP is toxic, and so are the fumes from burning it, and the charcoal dust is also not like your normal overdone toast, so .... use a mask!

[Gumby]

Interestingly, a guy at bunnings told me today that there won't be any such thing as treated pine soon. It will be banned, along with MDF - eventually.

[Bowdo]

It's probably not too soon either. It's not really ideal either having the stuff inside the house. I think I will definitely take the advice and go the stain option. I like the idea of Marc's torching solution - will practice on an offcut before venturing inside.

[robri]

It was announced a couple weeks ago that it would be banned for children's playground equipment, benches etc, decking. The reason was that it was toxic and little children would play with it and lick their fingers - ingesting it that way.

If it is going to be banned for this reason - I would paint or varnish it and definitely not burn it - we all know the fumes are toxic and if it is burnt then the smoke will be through the house.

My thoughts only but being in the chemical game I am very cautious.
I think CCA treatment is banned in the US - but I may be wrong.