Treated wood or planed softwood? Kitchens, doors, rails, stud, tables, chairs, stair cases, garden furniture etc... Find answers and ask questions here!

[d0nnyoz]

Hi

Newbie here and first question!!

I am a fairly competent DIY'er having redesigned my whole kitchen during lockdown, including knocking down a supporting wall and installing a steel beam, but I've got a very basic question now about wood working!

I have always wanted to build a simple picnic table. There are loads of plans etc online and I have a fairly good idea about how to go about it.
What is slightly confusing me is the type of wood I should use to build it. The most obvious answer (to me) is to use treated wood (C16 or C24??), but with most treated wood being quite coarse, I wondered if it would be better to build it using plain old planed softwood and then treat the whole table with some weather protection, whether that be with some sort of oil or wood treatment once built?

So the question is, build a picnic table using pre-treated wood or build it using plan softwood and then treat the wood after?

Thanks in advance.

[stoneyboy]

Hi d0nnyoz,
Use treated softwood not planed untreated wood - the latter will rot in no time at all, especially on the joins.
Regards S