posted 8 years ago
Hi all,
I am having some mold problems on roundwood timber I am hoping you might be able to help with.
Building is an octagonal structure, using roundwood timbers for the posts, beams, and rafters. We are located in the maritime Pacific Northwest. When I initially cut down the trees for this project, it was late spring. Soon after cutting them down, I used a draw knife to strip the bark, then left them in a part sun-part shade area to dry out sitting on some alder logs (as stickers). They were not rained on. In late summer we started seeing some black moldy growth on many of the logs (again... no rain). We washed all the logs with soap & water. They continued to get moldy. We tried treating them with white vinegar/water mixture & it did not seem to help. The only timbers that did not mold were ones where I stripped the bark later (brutal process where the bark & underlying wood had fused strongly together making the draw knife work very, very difficult; wood after stripping is very dry). The timbers that did mold were the ones that I stripped right away (draw knife more easily gets under the bark, exposing a very slick wood surface). Wood is doug fir & hemlock.
Any ideas on what I can do to prevent this from happening in the first place?
Any ideas on how best to 'treat' the ones that did mold?
Thanks in advance for your time & help. Much appreciated.
To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power. Above all, to watch. To try and understand. To never look away. And never, never to forget.
~ Arundhati Roy