Welcome to my blog. My name is Deborah. About 15 years ago, I bought an old home. We worked with several contractors to rehabilitate it, but ultimately, the foundation simply wasn't stable enough, and we had to tear it down. After that, we worked with a construction crew to build a home from the ground up. The experience was exciting and challenging, and I learned a lot through that process. I want to share construction and contracting facts and information with others so I decided to start this blog. I hope that you like the results, and I thank you for reading. Enjoy!
Garden sleepers are great for showcasing a particular spot or flower bed of your garden, and they also give your garden many different levels, which can make your garden more interesting looking. Pine is a popular material for sleepers, as it's a natural material that gives your garden a rustic look. However, for pine to be used as retaining walls for a sleeper, it's very important that it's treated properly. In order to get a treated pine sleeper with all the qualities you desire, you need to choose what treatment to give it.
Painting
Paint is a common material to treat pine, as it also gives you the opportunity to change the look of the wood by adding a colour to it. Paint can be a good material to keep dirt and moisture out of the wood to prevent rot and cracks, but the wood does have to be primed properly before the paint is added. As paint only lies on top of the wood rather than treating it from the inside, it's sensitive to movements in the wood, as it tends to crack if the wood moves. If the pain cracks, moisture can get through it and in to the wood. For this reason, you should make sure to repaint the wood as soon as you start spotting wear on the surface of the paint.
Staining
Staining the pine is another common way of treating it to withstand moisture and dirt. Stain, unlike paint, seeps into the wood and protects it from the inside. This also makes it flexible to the movements of the wood, meaning it won't crack. It allows the natural grain of the wood to shine through, although it does darken the nuance of the pine a bit. The downside of staining is that it's very difficult to change the shade of the wood after it has been stained once, as the colour isn't removed even if the effect of the staining has worn off.
Clear sealer
Clear sealer is a good treatment option if you wish to keep the natural shade and pattern of the pine. It keeps moisture out of the wood and is, like stain, penetrating, meaning that it won't crack if the wood moves. The downside of clear sealer is that the effect can wear off rather quickly, and you might even have to reapply it every year if you live in an area with heavy rain. Another downside can also be that the sealer can be more expensive than paint and stain, meaning it'll cost quite a lot more than these options as it has to be reapplied so often.
To learn more about garden sleeper options, contact a company like Australian Treated Pine.
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