UKC

Outdoor home wall

New Topic
This topic has been archived, and won't accept reply postings.
 benrhyd 02 Aug 2021

During lockdown I built myself a home wall which was kept indoors. I have now moved house and the only place to keep the wall is outdoors/in a local farmers barn.

I’m keen to treat the plywood boards to make sure they last and was wondering if anyone here has any experience of keeping walls outdoors and what people have used to treat the wood to keep it from rotting/if they would recommend it?

Ben

 NOG 02 Aug 2021
In reply to benrhyd:

My homeboard is outside and has been for the past 3 years with no ill-effects.

It has a polycarbonate roof that keeps almost all direct rain off the ply. 

The frame does get wet in heavy rain but that is high grade pine that had multiple layers of varnish before and after assembly. 

I sand down and re-varnish each summer. Just use a normal wood varnish.

The one thing I didn't do and would do in retrospect is varnish both sides of the plywood. Dampness in the air has led to some mould coming through from the back which is a bit unsightly and I expect will degrade the ply over time. So far however the ply is still seems solid. Will probably strip the ply and varnish both sides in the coming weeks if we get another heatwave.

 gravy 02 Aug 2021
In reply to benrhyd:

I painted mine with garden fence paint* everywhere (front, back, inside) and the used roofing felt on the back side to keep the rain off.  I also added a little "visor" at the top which over hangs the top a few inches which keeps the rain off the front face (which is about 25 degrees over hanging).

Later I made a little framework to tent over the climbing area and in winter I can enclose it.

Overall it seems to work

* cheapest I could find, a horrible orange colour which has thankfully weathered to a milder tone

 Paul Crusher R 02 Aug 2021
In reply to benrhyd:

You could go yacht varnish both sides and give the panel edges a good couple/3 coats. Keeping direct rain off it will extend its life massively. 

 henwardian 02 Aug 2021
In reply to benrhyd:

In addition to what others have said, the ground is going to be the wettest point (normally) so that's where any rot would start from. So making sure it is on an area of floor that is slightly elevated or even putting down a sheet a sacrificial wood underneath should help to stop rot starting.

OP benrhyd 03 Aug 2021
In reply to benrhyd:

OK great, thanks everyone for the advice! Sounds like there are a few different options for coating the wood, so will have a look round my local store at what they have. I have a plastic ground sheet that I was going to pop under the wall too to keep the water off the bottom which I think should work well, then sounds like I just need to get some sort of system of keeping any direct rain away from the walll.

Thanks,

Ben

 Alkis 03 Aug 2021
In reply to benrhyd:

Mine is outside, I built it in April 2020. I have a heavy duty tarp (not the woven type) over it, covering the entire back of the wall and then protruding forward by a metre and a half, forming a canopy. The wall itself, I used treated timber for the framing then used yacht varnish on it, and also gave the plywood multiple coats of yacht varnish, with special attention to the edges and the holes. I set the framing itself on a heavy duty nylon sheet, which stops any water from somehow making it under the wall.

It has been spotless, any water that *might* make contact with it just beads off, no mould issues, etc. In fact, the only things I have that have gone mouldy are some volumes I acquired from the Nottingham Depot when they were renovating, those did not fare remotely as well as the wall itself, so when I make some more volumes I'll need to treat them the same way as the wall.

Post edited at 09:59
 sescritt 03 Aug 2021
In reply to benrhyd:

My wall's in the garden and I had a tarp over it but water was still coming through. I ended up buying epdm roofing rubber that you can buy cut to size and covered it with that and it did the trick. Wasn't cheap though.

 Alkis 03 Aug 2021
In reply to sescritt:

Yeah, I originally used a regular tarp: Woven tarps are not actually waterproof.

I switched to one of these:

http://www.tarpaflex.co.uk/acatalog/heavy-grade-tarpaulins.html
 

Expensive but ridiculously tough, totally water proof and allow me to still have an awning on the wall. Didn't tear even in high winds (although it did end up pulling the fence the awning is tensioned too out 😆 ).

Post edited at 15:41

New Topic
This topic has been archived, and won't accept reply postings.
Loading Notifications...