Treating the barn with diesel and transmission fluid?
Posted by Bill on May 09 2007 at 02:59 pm | Tagged as: The Barn
One of the great mysteries of our new home was why the previous owners would leave behind several fifty gallon barrels of chemicals behind. It was alarming. We wanted to dispose of them in an environmentally friendly way but weren’t quite sure where to start. The previous owners didn’t have a tractor so why did they have giant barrels of what seemed like thick oil or grease? We mentioned this to several people in the area and it was only last month that someone gave us the clue we needed to solve this mystery. Our barn is wood sided and apparently it’s common in this area to mix some concoction of diesel fuel, used transmission fluid and whatever this oil/grease is in the barrels to treat the wood on the barn. It’s supposed to protect the wood from the weather and insects, such as carpenter bees. I have never heard of such a thing. I guess it kind of makes sense. I know wood needs to be chemically treated to last but it seems odd to me that we should be using something that is…I don’t know…HIGHLY FLAMMABLE!
Have you ever heard of this? What do you guys use for your wooden barns/out-buildings?
I don’t believe that diesel fuel is all that flammable.
We use a mixture of diesel oil and tar on the shingled barn roof. It is usually applied hot, having been heated in a vat over a fire in the yard. (So I guess that it can’t be too flammable.) It’s safe, so long as care is taken that sparks from a chimney don’t land on it. I believe that creosote-like chemicals may be carcinogenic though (I stand to be corrected on this if wrong), so do wear protective clothing when working with the stuff.
We had a barrel of similar stuff on this place when we moved here. I wonder if this is why? Now you have me thinking. Interesting post….
They have taken the creosote products off the market. I couldn’t stand the smell anyway…
But this stuff doesn’t sound like it would smell any better. There are products on the market for these kinds of things. I think I would try them first.
I saw a show on tv where they used something similar in a part of Africa to treat the wood houses in order to keep pests (like ants and termites) off the wood. It didn’t seem to work that well, and if it contains used motor oil, it is definately carinogenic.