Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Starting to build

January 26, 2012

Well we got enough material for about half of the 16 foot wall. We got a lot of amazed looks and comments when we went to Lowes to purchase our landscape timbers.  Everything from, "That sounds cool and amazing", to " Did you know those timbers are toxic?"

A quick note about treated lumber, prior to 2002, treated lumber contained arsenic, which we all know is toxic.  However in 2002, the EPA made it illegal to treat lumber with aresnic.  Most treated lumber is treated with what is none as ACQ (alkaline copper quartenary), which is NOT toxic.

Anyway, we first layed a treated 2X4 directly on the subfloor to form the base for the landscape timber wall.  We also ran a double 1/4 in bead of Liquid Nails Subfloor Construction Adhesive.  This 2X4 was secured to the subfloor using 2 1/2 in framing nails.

We then put some more construction adhesive down, and secured another treated 2X4 to the first when.  This is so when you nail the landscaped timbers down, they will be secured to the subfloor. 

We are using 6 inch ring shanked pole barn nails.  Theses are some pretty hefty nails, and I would recommend pre-drilling holes for them.  We placed them about 3 feet apart from each other.