# Forum Home Renovation Landscaping, Gardening & Outdoors  Treated Pine Sleepers - how good do they look stained?

## Bin J

Couldn't find the answer to this question, so hopefully I'm not doubling up . . .  
In our yard I was planning on making some timber 'boardwalks' (instead of concerete path) using sleepers. If I was to use hardwood sleepers, I would attach them to H4 treated pine that was in the ground. I would like to use hardwood because i know that when I stain it, it will look great. 
HOWEVER . . . my dad, in his garden, used treated pine sleepers (straight on the ground, fixed with 'posts' into the ground at the ends) and it looked good, but still kind of 'treated' if you get what I mean. I said 'are you going to stain it' and he said 'no, why would I' (obviously he is satisfied with that look).  
My question is, does stained treated pine look good? Does anyone have any pics? I would much rather use treated pine if it looks good, knowing there should be much less hassels than with hardwood.  
Also, does treated pine sleepers have the tendency to bow/twist? 
Thanks  :Smilie:

----------


## masterblaster

Hi Bin , not Lardin is it ? 
Haven't stained the sleepers but stained 6 poles and heaps of pagola railing on my last place, they looked great . Much the same as the natural bush cut fence posts l stained around the same house except it took an extra coat to get rid of the greenish undertone coming through with the first coat .
There was still a slight greenish undertone , very faint though as compared to the fence posts which were the beautiful natural orangey brownish colours to start but eh , that was all for a big pagola at the front of the house , it still came up great .
l used that timber glow natural stain .
With our new place here most of the timber and front fencing is also treated & l'll be staining all that . lt also helps if you shop around for the treated pine you use , some places have stuff that's almost natural in colour anyway , like boards l used for my front fence and stains up much easier than the darker greeny treated tones .
lt's all the same stuff but they'll all use different stockests l guess and some of it's very light so if you can get that , even better .
lf you have the timber already and it is the darker greens you can always go abit light in your stain colour because the green will darken it . 
Cheers
MB     

> Couldn't find the answer to this question, so hopefully I'm not doubling up . . .  
> In our yard I was planning on making some timber 'boardwalks' (instead of concerete path) using sleepers. If I was to use hardwood sleepers, I would attach them to H4 treated pine that was in the ground. I would like to use hardwood because i know that when I stain it, it will look great. 
> HOWEVER . . . my dad, in his garden, used treated pine sleepers (straight on the ground, fixed with 'posts' into the ground at the ends) and it looked good, but still kind of 'treated' if you get what I mean. I said 'are you going to stain it' and he said 'no, why would I' (obviously he is satisfied with that look).  
> My question is, does stained treated pine look good? Does anyone have any pics? I would much rather use treated pine if it looks good, knowing there should be much less hassels than with hardwood.  
> Also, does treated pine sleepers have the tendency to bow/twist? 
> Thanks

----------


## D-I-Yer

i built a bridge over the edge of our pool using pine sleepers and logs for posts. i stained them with used sump oil ( pretty heavily ). it looks great but the sleepers did bow upward. a fair bit actually. our bridge is mainly for show and looks kinda rustic.

----------


## scooter

Bin, the sleepers will be H4 so OK for direct ground contact, but I reckon there's a bit of potential there for warping/bowing - the underside will be contacting the moist ground whereas the top side will be drying naturally, not a great combination I'd reckon.  
Cheers...............Sean

----------


## elphingirl

Hi Bin 
The treatment process of CCA treated pine includes copper and chromium, which produce the characteristic green colour. However this does lessen with time, and as Masterblaster said, you can usually find some that's not too dark anyway. There is a new treatment process called ACQ that's suitable for in ground use, and that timber is starting to come through now. 
To minimise twisting/warping, (it will anyway) seal twice all over with an external grade product on all sides.  
Personally I think hardwood would look much better - I really wish I had not put treated pine decking down - it looks pretty bad. Lot's of knots, twisting, uneven absorption of oil etc. 
Cheers
Justine

----------


## Bin J

Thank you so much for all your answers - any pics  :Smilie:  ?

----------


## snowyskiesau

I've just taken delivery of some treated pine sleepers and they do no have the characteristic green colour I would have expected.
Has the treating method changed recently? If so, does anyone know how this would affect staining?

----------


## elphingirl

There are a couple of different treatment methods, the green is just from CCA treatment. But sometimes it's just faded. I don't think any of the treatment methods effect the how the wood takes up the stain.
Cheers

----------


## tisme01

my guess is the sleepers that were used came from somewhere not from around this area say new zealand they are great over there however in australia because there not acclimatized they tend to wonder

----------

