Attic Wood Leaking Sap

Turpentine works perfect for this purpose and it will not damage the quality of the wood.

Attic wood leaking sap.

The sap feels pretty solid to the touch and not really sticky. Much of the wood produced for framing lumber has pitch pockets or areas of crystalized resin. The sap when in live trees carries nutrients throughout the tree that helps to keep it alive. To prevent sap from leaking out of deck boards it needs to be finished with paint stain or deck waterproofing.

We see more of this sap staining when the wood used for framing was not kiln dried before construction. There s a couple support boards for the roof in my attic that have sap dripping out of them. Use a coarse plastic sponge to scrape the oozed resinous compounds and go over the surface of the wood with a clean towel. Treat the knot areas with extra coats of the finishing material.

It cooks out in the heat and eventually crystallizes. Use a handheld oscillating fitted with. When it is wet it is sticky and can rub off on clothing or attract dust and dirt. When it dries it hardens and becomes difficult to remove creating unsightly spots or bumps in the wood surface.

Imgp3939 by r0ckstarr on flickr. Sap on boards can be a problem. Sand the wood surface with fine 220 grit sandpaper to smooth the grain and remove any crystallized sap. Is this normal for this kind of wood and is this cedar.

Similarly when a tree is damaged the sap can bleed out. Like kevin said the attic heat restores this to a liquid form and it flows out. While there are complex chemical components found in tree sap it s easy to compare sap to blood. Attic ambering refers to wooden beams in the attic having sap leak out.

It s sap crystals that have been extruded from the wood due to high attic temperatures. For a start you need to clean all the sap which is gradually crystallizing on the top of the affected wood. Some wood has an abundance of sap in it. Sanding blocks help smooth large flat areas.

Sap can caused a problem on decks and in houses where wood beams are used for support. These materials slow the leakage by clogging the wood grain pores but will not stop it completely.