Care of your HAYMAC untreated Treated Timber Products

 HAYMAC timber products that have been made for you using untreated timber such as joinery quality driveway gates, windows, doors and other exterior joinery quality products will require a surface applied treatment to prolong the lifespan of your product and ensure against water / moisture ingress.

Joinery Quality Gates & exterior products

To ensure your joinery timber product has a long life span we recommend that you apply a good quality preservative, stain, paint or varnish to your new product as soon as is possible after installation, for gates it is best if you can paint prior to installation. For joinery quality gates we recommend a solvent based stain from either the Sadolins or Sikkens range (please apply 3 coats of these products as a minimum for the first treatment and carefully follow the manufacturers guidelines for re-treatment) or the traditional painted finish using 2 coats of primer, 2 coats of undercoat and 2 coats of top coat.

Your Joinery quality timber gates or product will require annual treatments to ensure water does not ingress to any joints or timber end grain over time.

Particular attention when treating your timber product must be given to joints and timber end grain on the top and bottom of the timbers as these are the areas where water will ingress.

Please Note:

  1. The timber used to produce your product will produce cracks (checks / shake) that will open and close as an effect of weather conditions, please hesitate from filling these cracks as when the timber swells and closes the crack the filler will act as a ‘wedge’ and cause the crack to extend further. These cracks are not detrimental to the item’s long-term durability. Cracks / shake is not a timber or construction defect and is to be expected as timber is a natural product.
  2. Timber knots should be treated with a knot sealing compound to help arrest knot sap bleed out, patent knotting solution is ideal if painting the timber product. Knot bleed out is not a timber or construction defect and is to be expected as timber is a natural product.
  3. As timber is a natural product it will shrink, swell & twist with changes in ambient air moisture content- please refrain from shaving or planning the product to ease any swelling, you should re-adjust fittings to ease any problems as after a relatively short time your timber product will settle in to the environment and any changes will stabilise (usually within 12 months depending on the time of year your product was installed). Shrinking, swelling & twisting is not a timber or construction defect and is to be expected as timber is a natural product.

General  Maintenance

If your product is located under trees or does not enjoy full sun, it may be subject to a build-up of green algae, surface mould and/or general grime. Remove using one of the following methods:

Using a stiff brush, scrub affected timber with warm water with diluted detergent. Rinse thoroughly with clean water and allow to dry. Or, following manufacturer’s instructions, use a diluted standard garden fungicide.

Use of a Pressure Washer

A pressure washer, used with care, can be used to clean surfaces but may cause the grain to “lift” and remove previously applied paint treatments and thus require light sanding, re-painting and re-waterproofing.
Should you choose to use a pressure washer, great care should be taken to ensure the nozzle is not too close to the surface – follow manufacturer’s instructions to prevent damage to the timber.

Life Expectancy of Untreated timber

Untreated timber will suffer decay relatively quickly under adverse conditions if left untreated so the better the quality of treatment you apply and more often you apply your surface treatment the longer your product will last. The life expectancy of your timber product will be dependent on the quality of the treatment you apply and the frequency of application.