Pole and beam in the centre of living area. How to finish?

That's a really good point Ian. You've got me rather worried as we've been going to great lengths to build our family home in a low-toxic way (the use of CCA timber being the one noteable exception...a long story!).

Without knowing the exact manufacturer's safety advice for H5 CCA or whatever it is, can you suggest some measures I should take now to try to minimise any future health risks from what I've done (besides sealing the pole as you've suggested)? Should I go over the whole structure really carefully with the vacuum for instance and collect every bit of dust I can? Anything else I could do? Your thoughts on this would be hugely appreciated!

I'd go for numerous coats of red tinted lacquer and clear for the beam or wrap the post in heavy hemp rope up to the underside of the beam.

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Originally Posted by grapeseed

That's a really good point Ian. You've got me rather worried as we've been going to great lengths to build our family home in a low-toxic way (the use of CCA timber being the one noteable exception...a long story!).

Without knowing the exact manufacturer's safety advice for H5 CCA or whatever it is, can you suggest some measures I should take now to try to minimise any future health risks from what I've done (besides sealing the pole as you've suggested)? Should I go over the whole structure really carefully with the vacuum for instance and collect every bit of dust I can? Anything else I could do? Your thoughts on this would be hugely appreciated!

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the sanding you have done has probably spread a quantity of arsenic through the house.
there will be ways that you can vacuum up the residual dust or wash it off surfaces and of course personal hygiene is always important. Dust that will ultimately be sealed behind walls or under floor coverings will be less critical than dust on visible and usable surfaces.

I suggest you get yourself tested for accumulated arsenic -- from memory arsenic accumulates in your hair and finger nails.
This will give an indication of how much was released by your sanding and how diligent you need to be when cleaning up. Hopefully you collected almost all of the sanding dust while using your sander.


for the pole itself, I'm attracted to the idea of several seal coats followed by a faux wood grain effect.

I had a beam in my living room that was stained dark brown with the wood grain visible. I recently had to relace it (termites) and the choise of how to finish it came up. Eventually settled for the same colour as the walls, the dark beam disappeared and the room opened up, the improvment was dramatic.

FWIW, I did some research into power-poles recently and I'm pretty sure that the grid operators in Australia all require H5 treated timber, rather than H4.

Personally, I wouldn't be concerned about the health risk of CCA treated timbers - just seal them with paint or varnish. I would be slightly concerned about the dust, but from what I've read, the chemical makeup of CCA treatment means that the arsenic compounds that are formed are actually quite a bit less toxic than elemental arsenic.