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I have recently made a raised garden bed out of the 200x50 pine h4 sleepers and am wondering how long I should wait for the timber to dry before I paint.
It’s been a week and I can already see the timber starting too shrink, as gaps are appearing where there where none.
we are expecting some heavy rain in the coming week and am wondering if I should get it done now
G'day @conor2527
The answer to your question from members and staff will be interesting.
Wet sleepers are notorious for shrinking, bowing, cupping and whatever, if not held in place from the word go. I have wondered if early painting helps prevent this - but my recent experience says - no.
Last year I positioned small sleepers (200 X 50) under an outside area so that when maintaining the evaporative air-conditioner above I had a strong structure beneath me.
I placed them quickly, anchored and painted.
Amazingly I prevented twisting, but not shrinking - length wise. It shrunk from the wall about 10mm and snapped the three horizontal screws. You can see the recently applied paint stretching...
Hi @conor2527
Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community. It's fabulous to have you join us, and thanks for sharing your question about painting treated pine.
Generally, I suggest letting it season first for about 8 to 12 weeks. This will allow it enough time to sweat and leak out any oil and tannins that are inside the timber. It is possible to accelerate the process by washing and scrubbing the pine with 1L UltraPrep Tannin And Oil Remover.
Once the timber dries off you can then plan on painting it when the weather is good.
If you have any other questions we can help with, please let us know.
Eric
