Can I paint over creosote

The title says it all.

Good luck...ain't got a clue...


Donnie

Never heard of it.

You can but when it gets hot the creosote will bleed through the paint.

Bad idea.

Yep

Boco right lol

No.

Not a good idea are you covering up a chimney

No Power poles turned into boards to be used as flooring.
seemed like a good idea.
Dunno now.
just

lol i would find another use for the boards

Fire hazard I used them to landscape my boiler pad big mistake.

If they are old poles I doubt there is much creosote left other than in the butt.

Got any pics of the flooring ?

No other un-altered wood available?

They replaced the poles along the road in front of our house. 15 of them. I have all but 4 cut into 9' pieces because my buddys band saw mill can only cut 9.5'. You can get a lot of 9' poles from 11 30' poles.
Anyway I figured to paint them before using as floor. I'll see if I can figure how to post a picture. just

The only help I can be is that I painted the lower part of a telephone pole that's in a parking lot so people don't hit it and it stayed white.

Is this going to be an outside floor like on a trailer or something?

Might treat it with kills first and then paint it. I would only do one and let it dry and get warm again before I used them. The smell will never leave. LLL

X2
I have a line of 6' sections that border my property at the street so people don't park on my lawn. Put them there 15+ years ago. On a hot summer day you can smell them 5 feet away.

Why not stain them if want to make them look better?

Keith

Inside the corn crib so I can use it as a shop floor.
I want to paint to stop the smell.
just

Think you could sell them to a farmer for fence posts and use the money from the sale plus the savings of the paint, to buy some plywood??? By the time you buy expensive paint, primer, have them cut, etc... they are going to smell and creosote is carcinogenic to breath.

Isn't a pole round ? Or did you saw them into planks ?

Anyways, paint won't stop the smell . High performance primers of all types won't stop the smell

Shellac is your best bet for odor control . You could use clear shellac if the wood is worthy , or white shellac then you can top coat with whatever paint and color floats your boat.

Shellac is expensive but there is an alternative product for a little less . It's a synthetic shellac.

I've used both on burnt houses with charred black framing and smoke damage.

The synthetic works to about 85 to 90% of the real deal.


Shellac is a resin that is secreted from the lac bug somewhere in Asia or maybe India , making it expensive to gather and produce into a product . Works good though

Used inside as flooring... I would think you will get noxious fumes in the winter when you had heat on. Some of the older creosote would also burn your skin when you com in contact with it. I wouldn't even considerate if you have small children or grandchildren.

When I was a kid,, there a creosote producing plant about 7 or 8 miles away from where we lived. In the summer when the wind was blowing from that direction you could hardly sit outside in in a hot humid evening the order was so pungent. There was a gas refinery right next door to the creosote plant and the creosote was produced from the waste pf this plant.

Garry-

.

Another trailer load of poles at the saw.

Once you rip the edges down you won't have much concentrated creosote left will you ?

I'd use a clear shellac all four sides and both ends prior to installation.

Coat one board and after it dries place it in your house over night to see if you can smell the creosote

I don't think there is much in the interior of the poles. Some of the boards are a lot lighter colored than the others and some I can see color change.
All shellac is interior. I think I need exterior.
I'm wondering about deck sealer.
just

It'd be good firewood-creosote wood burns hotter than hades.

I thought you said it was for flooring .?

If it's for decking , just stain it and call it good . Don't paint it unless you want headaches later.


Or just burn it like boco says

Are you sure it is creosoted all the way up the pole.
All the hydro poles I have seen are creosoted at the bottom where they go into the ground.The rest of the pole is usually treated with osmose or similar product-it looks very pale green.

Most of the poles are close to natural looking wood.
Whats in the ground is very dark and I'm assuming creosote.
The saw dust smells like creosote.
Some of the poles are older and a redish color.
No greenish color.

It is for a floor in an outbuilding (earcorn crib) that I want to turn into a shop. I'm trying to stop the odor. That's what paint is sometimes use for. But if paint won't work I'm up for something else that works ....... ?? like deck sealer??,
just

Skunk quill is your best bet ......no mas creosote smell


Problem solved