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  • Lyle
  • 5 Apr 2020 8:50 PM
  • State Not Answered
  • Replies 2 replies
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Can I use old decking boards to create animal houses?

Hello

I've got a bunch of old decking boards and I am keen to use them to create houses for animals. The one thing I'm not sure about is will it likely to have been treated with something that means I shouldn't use it? I don't know it's history unfortunately. I'm thinking about making birdboxes, bat boxes and a hedgehog house.

Thanks

  • Whistling Joe
    I've used old decking boards to make a hedgehog house without any problems. Wood for external use was tanalised with an arsenic compound some years ago (I seem to remember it was banned in the mid-noughties), so anything that dates from after that time should be absolutely fine (even stuff that pre-dates it is probably going to be ok for a hedgehog house, but maybe not a bird box as the birds peck away at the entrance). The potential for arsenic compounds are why you shouldn't burn old tanalised timber

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  • Lyle

    In reply to Whistling Joe:

    Thanks Joe!