TANASOTE TREATED TIMBERS PUT TO THE TEST
TANASOTE is a new timber preservative technology from Lonza Wood Protection designed as a modern alternative to traditional creosote treatments.
Whilst intended mainly to protect heavy duty industrial timbers such as railway sleepers and telecommunication poles, TANASOTE is also interesting fencing contractors that have previously used creosote treated timbers for agricultural and equine fencing projects.
One of those contractors is Tim Bennett Farm Fencing based around the South East of England. Tim Bennett is utilising early TANASOTE treated fencing timbers in a few field trial projects to gauge its characteristics compared to traditional creosote treated timbers that they have used as an option in their business for many years.
Projects have been established on both clay and chalk soil sites and Tim has been impressed with the product so far. Tim commented, ‘One of our key reasons for using timber posts is the adaptability. For ease of installation you can drive timber posts by machine. You also have the ability to mortice the posts to fit struts as required and staple or nail wires/boards for tiedowns as needed. From a fence building point of view concrete and steel posts do not offer this flexibility.’
‘Creosote treated timbers have some very negative health and safety issues. Our installation teams are very wary about working with creosote products, from short term skin burning problems to longer term health issues. TANASOTE treated timber does not have these issues. It does have its own distinctive aroma, but it is not as invasive as creosote. Build a fence with TANASOTE treated timbers and you do not get the lingering ‘Eau de Creosote’ on you, your tools and work clothes for days after.’
‘We have had comments about the dark green colour of the product when new. However this fades reasonably quickly and like most fences after 12 months blends into the background. Also in the agricultural and equine industries, the key attraction for our customers is the longevity of the fence rather than aesthetics.’
‘It is also quite impressive to see the water repellent quality of the mineral oil based product on a rainy day and compare it to standard preservative treated timbers. One of our trial projects is now into its second year and this water repellency feature is still very strong.’
‘The preservative treatment into the timbers is really deep and consistent. When morticing or shaping struts into tenons on TANASOTE treated posts the depth of treatment is really impressive, far deeper than we are cutting. This means we can work with real confidence.
Add to that the service life we have been promised of a minimum of 40 years and we feel TANASOTE could become a natural replacement for creosote in our business and for our customers when the product is fully commercially available.’
Dr Hannah Griffiths, Lonza’s Product Development Technical Lead commented, ‘It has always been our business philosophy to fully field trial our new products before we bring them to market to ensure a real world performance for our customers. We are really excited about the results we are achieving with our TANASOTE trials and the opportunities it will offer in keeping wood as a key material in these important markets across Europe.’
‘We are also running separate field trials on TANASOTE treated equine fencing to check on horse cribbing and again our results so far are proving positive’.
‘TANASOTE is currently going through the Biocidal Products Regulation authorisation process and we are expecting this to complete in early 2021.’
A short video of one of Tim’s projects can be viewed on the following YouTube link – https://youtu.be/r09tWIyFPX0