How To Keep Wood From Rotting With A DIY Natural Wood Sealer!

[@pawpaw-kb3jr]

my grandfather taught this to me over 50 years ago and he learned it when he was in his teens. i put it on every piece of wood that is out side even some that is inside my barn, but he and i used just pure motor oil no diesel. he would put his wood posts in buckets of oil for a week or 2 and there are still some on his property that has been there over 100 years.

[@wrgb]

Might be a good idea to coat the trailer on a surface you don’t mind losing grass. Gravel driveways are a good place.

[@lavellnutrition]

I suggest using a mini sponge brush for the crevices as used in deck staining.

[@markybob_bassplaya1462]

Been using old oil and diesel for years on all kinds of exposed wood, works great. Nothing is 100% environmentally friendly, but reusing spent materials, not buying more wood, and staying away from purchasing yet more chemicals, this is fairly close. Father-in-law coated his bare plywood shed with old oil-diesel in 1980, shed is still in good shape. Pressure treated wood has crazy bad chemicals.

[@enginemagician]

I use a pump up sprayer. Coats everything very well.

[@1drhnsd1]

Used motor oil is what was applied on wood in the past to prevent termite infestations (and it works).

[@Doc1855]

We use to use ; Creosote, used motor oil and diesel fuel. A few years ago my wife wanted to see the farm I grew up on in SE Washington state. We made the 3 hour drive from our home in north central WA. When I was 18 years old my dad wanted to section off part of an area into 3 different pastures. We used old telephone poles as our corner posts. Dad had a 55 gallon drum that we filled part way with the 3 ingredients listed above. We’d soak 2-3 telephone poles, (cut to the length we needed) for 2 weeks. After that 2 week period we’d take them out and flip them so that after a month the entire pole would be saturated with our mixture. We’d take them out of the old oil drum and just lay them down. After all of the poles were ready to be installed one of us would dig the holes with the “stinger” from our tractor. To my surprise when we got to my dad’s old farm those corner posts were still in the same place where we had set them. That was almost 42 years ago.

[@CountryLivingExperience]

Wow, 42 years! That’s awesome.

[@skyzenrz4238]

We do this process long time ago for wood which will be used to build house..It works

[@Jophiel50]

I should file your channel under “stand in husband“ an off grid Homestead needs one and KZbin has supplied…Thank you for your contribution to my life; Imam learning an incredible amount from your channel :-)

[@CountryLivingExperience]

You're welcome

[@albertduque4838]

This will also protect against carpenter bees. Worked perfectly on my log cabin home.

[@meljordan220]

I do have a question, probably silly. Do you lay down a tarp when you go to get compost? I know the compost isn't on it very long but would there be any transfer of the petroleum into the compost? Thank you so much!❤

[@CountryLivingExperience]

Hi Mel. Good question. I don’t. It soaks in pretty quickly and isn’t on there very long.

[@imindful]

The Mexican way! The Mexicans I lived with in Baja did this all the time.

[@CountryLivingExperience]

Cool. It’s a great method that works well

[@commonwisdom5333]

I heard you can use whole walnuts as soon as they drop from the tree. Soak them in a bucket for two days and use the water.

[@CountryLivingExperience]

I have not heard that specifically. However, I have a relative in MI that was a walnut farmer. His hands were stained black as night his whole life.

[@sebern2]

The standard in Montana was to treat the wood of our log home with diesel fuel because of this.

[@boxelder9167]

Transmission fluid is regular oil (not motor weight) with a red die in it. It works just as well for what you are using it for.

[@russellpsi]

Does it dry completely? Or will it transfer to any of content being hauled on trailer ie in warm sun?

[@russellpsi]

I have some outdoor projects and used oil ...video came at a nice time

[@CountryLivingExperience]

It soaks in completely after about a week.

[@boxelder9167]

Use boiled linseed oil or real tung oil for a cleaner finish if oil transfer is an issue or if you need it to be more food safe. Once motor oil bakes in the sun it should stop rubbing off onto whatever you are putting on it.

[@marye7798]

Brilliant idea!

[@CountryLivingExperience]

Thank you

[@aafamilyfarms4412]

I want to retain natural color of treehouse we built. How can we preserve it without having motor oil stains on it? Thanks

[@CountryLivingExperience]

Not using this method

[@nolanwells6278]

Use red off-road s diesel and no yellow. also cost less

[@Damselfly54315]

Since you mentioned paint,for a deck on a house, what IS the best paint FOR a deck floor?

[@CountryLivingExperience]

They sell special deck paint at Home Depot.

[@boxelder9167]

I have had good success with oil based deck paints thin with mineral spirits or jap dry for the first coat to penetrate deeper into the wood. Then apply a second coat thinned half what you did the first time. On the third coat you can add sand for traction so it won’t get slick when it’s wet.

[@Damselfly54315]

@CountryLivingExperience well, SOME of the deck paints do more damage than good, I used 'Deck Correct' and water got under it somehow and caused rapid rot,so I just had to replace the whole floor of my 64'x12'.5" decking...AND THATS NOT CHEAP, so i want a GOOD BRAND to paint this one once its cured, which takes 6mo to a year, so NEXT spring its getting a porch/barn semi gloss paint and not that acrylic deck over crap!

[@boxelder9167]

@@Damselfly54315 - There are a lot of not very good products out there. Depending on what exposure you have will definitely determine how well it works. A covered area will hold up much better for paint. An uncovered surface exposed to sun, rain, accumulation of leaves, etc is ideal conditions for failure. I have experimented using bilge paint and it is impressive but after 3 years of continuous exposure to the worst conditions it has a few spots that separated. I painted an exposed deck once just as an experiment and it lasted about 5 years. In hindsight I would have used real tung oil and left the natural wood. I did a deck with untreated wood and used motor oil and it was still in good shape 10 years later. There’s also some stuff that is used for treating telephone poles in Canada but not sure if it’s available to the public and I have no personal experience with it. Horizontal wood exposed to the elements is probably the hardest problem to deal with I have ever encountered. The used motor oil has been the longest lasting and least expensive solution I’ve used. Plus it is very easy to recoat. I have done it for a couple customers who complained about it the whole time, didn’t like the smell or the color, acted like they hated me for doing it… but it held up. If I was going to do it for myself I’d use it, for a customer I would tell them to hire someone else. I did some painted railings a couple of years ago and I thinned out the primer with jap dry and used exterior oil based kilz for the primer. I did 2 coats of kilz then because it was thin with the first coat. I went back over it with the color of white they wanted and it was oil based paint too. I haven’t been back to check on it but it was the kind of person who would be blowing up my phone if they saw a problem. The guy who sold me the oil based paint said that nobody uses oil based paint anymore. Why did they quit? I just did it the same way my grandpa showed me. Probably a good reason why he did it that way. Jap dry is almost entirely naphtha and I have used the naphtha to thin oil paint with good results and faster drying time.

[@fatguyco9]

I’m still a suburb slicker but have a wooden fence around my back yard. I don’t change my own oil anymore so I don’t have used motor oil around (why does it have to be used, if necessary?) but I do have some old (not used) motorcycle and car oil out in the garage for vehicles that I no longer own. Can I use that instead of the used oil? I suppose I would still have to buy a diesel can to bring some diesel home in, but I’m curious to hear your thoughts on the unused oil. Thanks.

[@CountryLivingExperience]

You can use the new....it is just expensive to do it that way. But like you said, it is leftover from equipment you don't have anymore.

[@PraxisPrepper]

Nice video. Thx.

[@CountryLivingExperience]

You’re welcome

[@KeithHarrop-p7n]

I am preparing to build a garden hoophouse for season extension of vegetable crops; will have wood baseboards around the perimeter… default approach is to use pressure treated lumber… would you use this oil/ diesel application in a garden setting? What are your thoughts on pressure treated lumber in a garden setting?

[@CountryLivingExperience]

I use both in my garden. I don't see any adverse effects. The pressure treated lumber basically just has copper in it.

[@Bradywoman]

Does it smell?

[@CountryLivingExperience]

Only for a week or so.

[@draperone371]

Thank you ❤ 😊

[@CountryLivingExperience]

You're welcome

[@Sylvan_dB]

Time honored techniques FTW! Just don't coat your wood with a oil+diesel mix, then a few weeks or months later decide to apply Shou sugi ban (yakisugi).

[@CountryLivingExperience]

Yea, the two techniques would certainly not mix well together.

[@richardnwilson]

I would hardly call used motor oil and diesel fuel a "natural" sealer.

[@dustydawson8977]

Said this forever, oil today is thin,used oil is better than new oil, wood destroying insects just hate it, coat more than once, allow to soke in fully

[@jim4utube]

How bad does it smell?

[@CountryLivingExperience]

Not bad. It’s gone in about 24 hours.

[@EK--ry3lr]

I didn't know y'all were also in East Texas! I'm north of Tyler! Does it make the trailer slick when wet?

[@CountryLivingExperience]

Cool! It’s a bit slick when just wet but there is no “slipperiness” after a few hours.

[@EK--ry3lr]

@@CountryLivingExperience I meant more like in a few months and it rains does it get super slick when watered?

[@CountryLivingExperience]

Nope. It has good traction after about a week.

[@Sigmand0]

It’s ever so slightly more slick after a good rain. Not super slippery by any means. Farmers have been doing this trick for as long as we’ve had used oil. You will not regret it.

[@fishinrivers2883]

[great video thanks. reminds me of a guy who would drill 1/2" holes at a downward angle into his fence posts, above grade and fill it with oil then plug it with a stick. He would go around and refill them every year or so. brilliant. I think he soaked the posts in the oil diesel before he put them in years ago. Brilliant, I love not buying the stupid products they program us to buy.]

[@CountryLivingExperience]

You're welcome.

[@Sylvan_dB]

I've also seen a tuna can nailed to the top of a fence post (one or two nails thru the bottom of the can into the top of the post). Then you fill each can with used oil which slowly weeps around the nail(s) into the post. Supposedly follows the grain of the wood, and definitely stops water from soaking into the top of the post. Probably works better than the prior owners of my place that just dumped their oil along the fence line. Too much in too little area and not enough in the wood of the posts... it took a couple of years for nature to break down that oil so it didn't stink in the sun and the grass would grow.

[@fishinrivers2883]

@@Sylvan_dB[thanks for sharing that is a great idea.]

[@richardmckinney2646]

Natual?

[@JBPowell-y9m]

I've been looking in to hemp oil for wood finishing and preserving, but the biggest problem with that is in order to grow hemp there are legal and bureaucratic issues to deal with due to the fake phobias put out there about hemp (canabis sativa). And of course Big Cotton and Lumber do everything they can to stop the full legalization of Hemp because of greed. It seems hemp oil would be a great natural and environmentally safe alternative. However, it wouldn't solve the issue of what to do with all of your used motor oil lol

[@CountryLivingExperience]

Hemp is a great product. I wish it was more available.

[@boxelder9167]

Real tung oil was used for naval ships for about a century or more and comes from the tree nuts of the tung tree. It’s safe to use and you could probably eat it safely. Just don’t buy the fake oil with the same name.

[@Nestos209]

Every old wooden utility post in our city has oil in. You can see the oil seep out over time. Right into the storm drains.

[@clarencewiles963]

Thumbs up 👍