Excerpt from Preservative Treatments and Service Life of Fence Posts in Puerto Rico: 1972 Progress Report

Low investment non-pressure wood preservation techniques for fence posts have been under investigation in Puerto Rico since 1944. Extensive field trials, however, have been established only recently and most of the posts have been in service for 12 to 13 years. Posts treated by four non-pressure techniques (cold soaking, hot-and-cold bath, steeping, and end-diffusion) using five wood preservation chemicals (creosote, pentachlorophenol, carbolineum, and two double-diffusion salt combinations) are now set out at four test locations. About treated and non-treated control posts representing some 70 species are under study.

This fourth comprehensive progress report describes in some detail the materials used, treating methods, chemical retentions, soil and climate at each plot, and reviews the condition of the posts through the April 1972 inspection. Most of the posts have been in service for 13 years and some tentative as well as final conclusions can now be made. They are: 1) untreated posts have an average service life of only years; 2) during early years of exposure, treated posts at the low elevation site have many more failures than those set out in the high elevation as exposure continues these differences are slight; 3) although termite attack may be locally severe, decay fungi cause most of the failures; 4) posts cold-soaked in pentachlorophenol-diesel oil in a vertical position butt down had a greater preservative solution absorption and much longer service life over those cold-soaked in a horizontal position; 5) hot-and-cold bath treatments using pentachlorophenol or creosote have, to date, few failures but where service life is predictable this averages 16-18 years; 6) posts treated with the high concentration double-diffusion salts by complete immersion are intermediate in durability to those treated by cold soaking in pentachlorophenol or creosote and those treated by the hot-and-cold bath technique; 7) after 5 years exposure, there is only 1 failure out of 348 posts set out in the incising study, an average service life of over 20 years is anticipated.

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