No DIY Woody WMD Found?

[edlithgow]

Ive scraped off most of the lichen (I thought that stuff was supposed to be slow growing?) and moss and mostly uprooted the higher plants.


(Might have been an idea to leave this under a cover to promote deck-drying, but I didn't think of it and there was no one around saying "woodsman spare that shrub". Never an eco-freak when you need one)


Now want to take death a bit deeper into what looks to have been teak trim. When I was last doing this kind of thing, decades ago, one could buy reasonably toxic wood treatments in small quantities. I used Cuprinol Clear quite a lot. Cant remember what was in it but something moderately nasty.

Doesn't seem to be much in these enlightened times.

The big chans, BnQ/Wicks only have rather wimpy “civilian” wood treatment available in rather large quantities. Ditto “deck cleaner” (they mean “patio decks”) which seemed to have some kind of alcohol in it, but I couldn’t read the small print.


Know of anything effective one can buy?


I think I've heard antifreeze mentioned, which I might be using to try and "winterise" the engine anyway.

Home remedy stylee, seawater might be some use as a start, but the yard is up-estuary (Boness on The Firth of Forth if that means anything) and probably both rather muddy and dilute.


Sump oil should be available shortly from the Yanmar, but hopefully it wont be used enough to be very toxic


Going nuclear I might be able to make something by electrolysing scrap stainless steel or chrome plate, but I dont currently have any, and the authorities might prefer me not to.


Know any other effective home remedies?

[edlithgow]

This thread


https://forums.ybw.com/threads/teak-....541548/page-3


seems to favour "Patio Magic" or variants thereof, which I'll look for, but it may have been detoxed a bit over the last 20 years or so.

[GordMay]

FWIW: “Cupriinol Clear” wood preservative, as sold in the UK, contains: butoxypropan-2-ol, IPBC, propiconazole [ISO], and [2-methoxymethylethoxy] propanol.
➥ https://www.cuprinol.co.uk/product/c...reserver-clear
➥ https://msp.images.akzonobel.com/prd...(bp)_clear.pdf

[JPA Cate]

"Wet & Forget" moss and mold remover is what we've used on fabrics. Available here in Oz. Have not used it on timber, it is intended for outdoor patio stuff. Might not work on wood, but worked well on Sunbrella.

Ann

[thinwater]

Google log cabin preservation, totem pole preservation, and Halber-Rassey teak.

• Borax
• Glycol borate

Sometimes BAC (the ingredient in wet-and-forget and patio magic) is recommended, but it can affect caulking in higher doses and Halberg-Rassy no longer recommends formulations with BAC. Stick with the first two.


Also, remember that to do any lasting good ...

• The wood needs to be dry so that it ...
• soaks in, and
• sealing it in helps.

I have a plain-old-pine totem pole in my back yard that is 25 years old without a spot of rot. I soaked the base with glycol borate for a week and then painted it. I also re-treat the base with borate rods every 5 years.

[edlithgow]

Originally Posted by GordMay

FWIW: “Cupriinol Clear” wood preservative, as sold in the UK, contains: butoxypropan-2-ol, IPBC, propiconazole [ISO], and [2-methoxymethylethoxy] propanol.
➥ https://www.cuprinol.co.uk/product/c...reserver-clear
➥ https://msp.images.akzonobel.com/prd...(bp)_clear.pdf

Propiconazole is a fungicide. From a quick look the others are likely carrier solvents.


I can't remember what was in it 40 plus years ago, but I suspect it was a bit more lethal.


I suppose I could make myself a little creasote/tar without too much trouble, but it'd probably be a bit inconveniently messy.

[edlithgow]

Originally Posted by thinwater

Google log cabin preservation, totem pole preservation, and Halber-Rassey teak.

• Borax
• Glycol borate

Sometimes BAC (the ingredient in wet-and-forget and patio magic) is recommended, but it can affect caulking in higher doses and Halberg-Rassy no longer recommends formulations with BAC. Stick with the first two.


Also, remember that to do any lasting good ...

• The wood needs to be dry so that it ...
• soaks in, and
• sealing it in helps.

I have a plain-old-pine totem pole in my back yard that is 25 years old without a spot of rot. I soaked the base with glycol borate for a week and then painted it. I also re-treat the base with borate rods every 5 years.

Forgot about the borax/borate. I'll investigate availability in the UK.


I dont think caulking is much of an issue, since there isn't much, if any.


Take your point about the wood needing to be dry, but it isn't, which is of course why its rotten.

Wasn't sure it was, but this afternoon I found some flat disks under overhanging trim which I THINK are dry rot fruiting bodies, so it needs nuked, or stripped out.

I suppose its in the deck core too, though I dont notice any springyness yet, not that I'm an expert.


How biocidic is petrol (before ignition)?


Or perhaps use actual biocide?


https://www.wynns.uk.com/product/fuel-biocide/

[edlithgow]

"Borax in the UK is mostly sold to professionals and business owners only due to its classification as a Reprotoxic compound. Individuals looking for where to buy borax powder in UK need to apply for approval before placing their orders."

[hpeer]

What about SALT? Either directly applied or in some solvent?

Works on cod.

[edlithgow]

Originally Posted by hpeer

What about SALT? Either directly applied or in some solvent?

Works on cod.

I think seawater (my first suggested home remedy above) might meet the latter description, but as I said I dunno if the local estuary will be salty or mud-free enough.


OTOH there is a nearby oil refinery, and the locals say shellfish were a lot better in the traditional coal-mining-burning-bing heavy industrial heyday.


Many decades ago I did accidentally get scarily too close to a break in the refinery's semi-clandestine waste pipe in my dinghy, just as they started pumping at dusk, and that stuff smelt like it might have had antifungal properties.



Drive through antifouling facility franchise?


(That sort of thing rather weakens any argument for restricting nasty chemicals to the pros)


Not sure I'm up for that again though, and they may have cleaned up their act.


Refiney is scheduled for closure anyway.

[hpeer]

Don’t let your prose get in the way of understanding. Not salt WATER… bloody SALT.

Get a 50lb bag of salt and mix is up in a big bucket (5 gallon if you recall the Imperial system) and make some BRINE.

In your oldest colony I can still buy 50lb bags of Fishermans Salt used for drying and preserving fish. Something similar used to make brine to preserve pork, beef, and those afore the main.

It is cheap, legal, and likely effective.

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by hpeer

Don’t let your prose get in the way of understanding. Not salt WATER… bloody SALT.

Get a 50lb bag of salt and mix is up in a big bucket (5 gallon if you recall the Imperial system) and make some BRINE.

In your oldest colony I can still buy 50lb bags of Fishermans Salt used for drying and preserving fish. Something similar used to make brine to preserve pork, beef, and those afore the main.

It is cheap, legal, and likely effective.

Look for “Curing Salt” [± $75/50#]

[edlithgow]

Originally Posted by hpeer

Don’t let your prose get in the way of understanding. Not salt WATER… bloody SALT.

Get a 50lb bag of salt and mix is up in a big bucket (5 gallon if you recall the Imperial system) and make some BRINE.

In your oldest colony I can still buy 50lb bags of Fishermans Salt used for drying and preserving fish. Something similar used to make brine to preserve pork, beef, and those afore the main.

It is cheap, legal, and likely effective.

Dunno, most of the simple, cheap, non-proprietary stuff is hard to find in The supermarket-centric Yook these days, even where it isn't outlawed.


Non-thickened, non perfumed, non-branded bleach, for example.


However, different route to my bus stop from the boatyard up a steep hill today revealed a full road/path salting silo, which should do nicely. Got some sand in it but that should settle out from brine, and any carry-over in the supernatant might usefully supply a fine abrasive.


Assuming this deal goes through, I'll have to leave the boat over the winter while I finish up in Taiwan. A few tubs/bags of this stuff around the deck, plus scatter, should keep things pretty saline even if the cover leaks quite badly.



Not sure I want to put it in the bilges though, because keel bolts.


I'll probably also use antifreeze.


Both of them should reduce frost damage as well as inhibiting funghi.


Oh, and brine is salt water. The term doesn't necessarily refer to a saturated solution, though one might in any case be produced from seawater by evaporation.


I understand though (and vaguely remember) that stagnant seawater tends to stink, so best avoided.

[edlithgow]

This look like dry rot to yäll?


Stupidly I didnt keep a sample when I scraped it off, so this is all the evidence I have at present, until/unless more grows.


It could be growing from the (apparently teak) capping on the cockpit coaming, or it could be growing on core material within the coaming.


There doesnt seem to be a great deal of bonded-in timber on the Trident 24 (no end grain balsa deck core for example) but there are apparently side deck and bilge stringers, and a prominent fore deck plank



https://i28.servimg.com/u/f28/18/14/95/21/t24_co10.jpg

[hpeer]

Who knows.

Can you source Boric Acid?