COMPANY NEWS
January 22, 2004
TO OUR VALUED CUSTOMERS
As you may already know, the EPA mandated that beginning January
1, 2004 CCA (Chromated Copper Arsenate) treated lumber be discontinued
for use in residential and other applications. Because of this, most
lumber is now being treated with ACQ (Alkaline Copper Quaternary)
compounds. ACQ treated lumber contains approxiamately three times
the amount of copper as CCA treated lumber, resulting in a product
that is five times as corrosive to steel products.
ABC has previously warned of allowing Galvalume® panels
to come into contact with, or water runoff from, CCA treated lumber.
However, because of the increased corrosiveness of the new ACQ treated
lumber, there is the additional concern for the fasteners used to
attach these panels to a treated wood member.
Currently, ABC can only recommend stainless steel fasteners for use
in ACQ treated lumber. Unfortunately, the issue of increased corrosiveness
was not communicated to either our industry or the residential industry
in a timely manner. This has resulted in fastener suppliers scrambling
to develop a coating for existing fasteners that will offer long term
performance in ACQ treated lumber at a cost less than that of stainless
steel. Please be assured that ABC is actively working with our fastener
suppliers to be able to provide you additional fasteners approved
for use in ACQ treated lumber.
ABC will keep you updated on future developments with this issue.
For now, ABC strongly recommends that when attaching panels to ACQ
treated lumber:
1. use stainless steel fasteners to attach panels, clips,
or other accessories to treated wood.
2. do not allow panels or flashing to come into contact
with treated wood.
3. do not allow water to drain off of treated wood
onto panels or flashing.
Additional information may be obtained at the following links below:
- article from
Fine Homebuilding magazine
- article from
Universal Forest Products
SFS Intec has introduced a new EVERGRIPTM Warranty
Thank You,
American Building Components
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