Treated boards probably safe for vegetable garden border

Tag : vegetable net
Qs it safe to use 20-year-old pressure-treated wood around a veggie garden? The boards bordered a big sandbox for 20 years. Ay this time the chemi cals that are going to leach out have leached out. To be safe, plant the veggies at least 12 inches away from the border boards. Also, you can line the boards with polyethylene plastic. Qy fence is made up of pickets on long 2-by-4 rails below a row of lattice. One of the rails is warped and I can't push it back into place. The warp is about a half-inch. What can I do? Aour fence is just like mine, and you can sit back and enjoy its good looks. I wish some of my boards were warped as little as a half-inch. Even if you took the board off (one heckuva job) and straightened it out, it would warp again. What I am trying to say is that such a warp is minimal and is best left alone. Qy brick steps are falling apart and are badly in need of replacing. What is best to use for durability, and a surface that is slip-resistant: Brick or bluestone tread on a brick riser? Arick is durable and with individual bricks divided by a mortar joint, is quite slip-resistant. Bluestone will last forever, and you can get a rough surface for the tread. It will also resist the salt used to melt ice, which brick will not. Qy doors face northeast and have always leaked at the bottom. I have used storm doors to no avail. The doors are new and still I get water inside. I have a sneaking suspicion that the threshold is not sloped enough. What can I do? Aour location on Cape Ann and the way the door faces northeast compounds the problems, especially during New England's signature storms -- northeasters. If your door is completely exposed, as it is in so many New England houses, there is no cure. So, how about relocating the entry so the door faces another direction. Concerning the slope of the threshold, it does not have to be very steep to shed water. Which leaves us the ultimate fix: Install a movable threshold, one that pops up when you open the door and pops down when you close it. Do the same for the storm door. Finally, a closed-in porch will work. Even if the door to the porch leaks, there would be no harm done on the porch. Qy cherry wood vanity needs work. It is not very old but looks pretty dreary. Should I sand it and refinish, or is there another way to refurbish it? I'd like to keep it the same color. Aust a few years old? It must've taken a beating, but I suppose bathroom locations are not ideal for stained and varnished wood. You could do it the hard way or the easy way. The hard way: Sand to the bare wood, which is difficult and tedious because you have to sand the stain off as well as the varnish (finish). Then stain and apply a semigloss urethane varnish. The easy way: Sand lightly to reduce gloss and roughen the finish. Apply one or two coats of Minwax PolyShades in the color of your choice.