I bought some treated 2×4's from Lowes, and it was fairly wet and heavy. I went ahead and built a firewood rack, but screwing into it releases a lot of water. It got me thinking, is it better to let the wood dry out a while before building with it?
This project is done, but if I was going to use treated wood in the future, should I buy some ahead of time and let is sit outside for a few weeks?
Best Answer
Unless you have a kiln to dry wood in, drying wood in a standard environment takes a really long time (if you buy firewood, usually you want ~2yr old wood!). I don't know that leaving it out for a couple weeks would dry it if it were so saturated that there is visible water coming out of it. It is recommended to let wood used for hardwoods sit a couple weeks to get accustomed to the environment as far as humidity goes, but it is not being dried any further.
I would recommend that you find a better source of wood that is dried properly. You also want to carefully select your wood, it might be that you just got a bad piece some how.
For outdoor projects, instead of PT lumber you might opt to try a wood like cedar which naturally resists the elements pretty well.