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Why nobody talks about pressure-treated vs cedar for outdoor shelving
I built two identical storage racks last spring, one with pressure-treated lumber and one with cedar, and after a wet summer the cedar one warped so bad I had to rebuild it while the treated one still looks like new, has anyone else had better luck with cedar holding up?
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felixhenderson5d ago
Funny thing about cedar and warping... it reminds me of the time @charlies37 and I built matching planter boxes for our community garden a few years back. He used some old salvaged cedar fence boards and they twisted up like potato chip bag twists over the winter, but I used some scrap pressure treated from a deck job and they're still square as can be. We both used the same weatherproofing stain too, so it wasn't the finish. The cedar looked real nice at first with that reddish color but it just couldn't handle the ground moisture like the treated stuff could. I guess pretty isn't always practical when it comes to outdoor wood.
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cole_murphy6d ago
Wait, did your cedar warp after just one summer? My buddy built a similar shelf setup with cedar and his looked like a potato chip after three months of rain. He swears by pressure treated now after that disaster, saying the cedar was just too soft for outdoor use. The funny thing is he bought the cedar first because it looked prettier, but that didn't matter when it twisted up and the screws started pulling out. I think pressure treated is the way to go for anything that's gonna sit outside and get wet, even if it doesn't look as nice. The chemicals in it just hold up way better to moisture than cedar's natural oils ever do.
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