Selfsufficientish.com

firstly sorry bout the lack of capitals but baby is asleep in arms so it's difficult to type!

Today at the end of my road a couple of trees were cut down - so i am now the proud owner of 6 lumps of tree trunk in my back garden, with the intention of using them as stalls for us all to sit on, the question is do i need to coat/varnish them? and if so what is the best/greenest thing to use on them, they will, when that part of the garden is sorted be on a gravel surface so will i have to treat both ends or just one?

Sorry if i'm being thick by asking - i blame baby hormones for sending my brain to mush (still)

thanks

sarahx

It depends what kind of timber it is, if it is a hardwood (oak, ash,sycamore, ect) let it season naturally and slowly and it will last a long time untreated, if it is a softwood (pine, spruce, ect) it may split on you so we used to coat ours in a water based varnish (2-3 coats) which traps the moisture in the ring and stops it splitting.
all the best

Russ

Oh Bugger, knew I should have looked abit closer at what they were cutting down, never mind was planning on going back there tomorrow as they had a few still left to murder so was going to get them to cut me off a big round from the base of one to make a table top with, so will ask them what type they were then.

Stupid thing I walked past them a couple of times a week through the school term but now if you ask me I couldn't even tell you what colour the leaves were let alone what the tree was.

Thank you Russ for your help

Sarahx

If you can't dent them easily with your thumbnail, its probably a hardwood.