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Protecting wood on new hayrack

D

DLMKA

Member
Building a new hayrack in the next few days. I bought rough sawn lumber from local Amish sawmill it's all white pine with 3x8 stringers, 4x4 cross beams, and 1x8 deck boards. Wood is still a little green but I would like to protect it the best I can because it may not have a home under cover. Would linseed oil be a good option or use high quality primer and outdoor paint?
 
Used motor oil works as good as anything I've ever tried. Use it like a stain every year. Clean chaff out from between boards at the end of year as it hold moisture.
 
If the wood is green I would let the wood dry out before trying to coat it with anything. If green what ever you use won't soak into wood.
 
I should add paint doesn't do a think to make wood last longer, its just to make it the colour you want. The old fellow I grew up working for loved red headboards on
his racks and painted them every year, rotted out at the same time as the floors that were not treated with anything.
 
The used engine oil is about the best and cheapest. Just blow it off and put it on. It will soak in even on the fresh cut pine. It will also be better if you can get it in under cover. A tarp with a slope would be better than left outside year round. Block a couple of 2x4's up on one end and then the tarp.
 
I've rebuilt three with the decks made of standard (untreated) 2x6 and 2x8 lumber with about a half inch gap between boards to let the chaff fall through. I paint them regularly with used motor oil as others
suggested and they are still doing fine even after being stored outside.
 
I like used hyd oil,does not seem as messy and looks better. I did paint a wagon floor and sprinkle fine sand on it so it was not slick.
 
Use tung oil instead of linseed oil. Not tung oil finish but 100% tung oil. You can treat it with that from time to time and when you think the wood is seasoned enough you could use a marine grade spar varnish over the top if you want the natural wood color or it could be painted with an oil based paint.
 
Just got done rebuilding two with p.t. wood,previously they had oak racks.mine sit
out and the oak still rots where the cross members sit on the main beams.there's no
way to get oil under there.is have rebuilt them twice with oak and blew them off at
the end of the season,but they still rot.if you can't keep them under cover your
better off to bite the bullet and use p.t. wood.
 
The problem with oak is the most common is red oak which easily rots. White oak on the other hand is almost as water resistant as pressure treated pine. Pressure treated unless you stack it up and sticker it and allow it to dry is prone to twist and warp and finishes don't adhere to it well at all.
 
I built a single position snowmobile trailer for my son when he started college in 2006 (MI Tech). I used some old 1x6s and 2x4s
that were laying around on an even older boat trailer. We put several coats of old motor oil on initially and re-coat it every
year. The wood is in as good a shape today as when it was installed.
 
Always put tar/tar paper/mastic/rubber roof something over the main beams or they will rot on top under the boards. Should have mentioned that.
 
Had an uncle that put a strip of aluminum flashing over the main beams with 2" ears bent at about a 45 on each side to keep the water off. The beams on those racks lasted probably 25 years sitting outside, with the floors replaced twice that I remember.

Personally, I wouldn't put used motor oil on anything. I know it's been used "forever" by old-tyme farmers for all sorts of chain lube and wood preservative uses. It's possible the warnings they put on jugs of oil these days don't mean much, but still, I'd rather not take a chance on the well being of my critters, my family, myself, or the soil we occupy by covering things with used motor oil. There are better, safer alternatives, like tung oil, or linseed oil.
 
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