Protecting Run materials

[rocketdoctor]

I know this has been brought up many times in past but what is the best way to protect an exposed run wood. To treat it with paint or stain to look right wouldn't you want to apply the material before you put the wire on the run? People have suggested you would need to reapply paint after a few years, are they painting over the wire where the wire is attached to the wood? I think in this case stain a transparent stain would be better so it doesn't look bad on the wire when reapplied?

 

[DobieLover]

I used ground contact rated pressure treated wood that I kept off the ground. No paint. No stain. It should last a couple of decades at least.

 

[Willowspirit]

I'm going toward stain. I love paint but you can get longer lasting stain than paint i think. This is if you use reasonably attractive wood. If not painting might be better.

 

[rocketdoctor]

I used ground contact rated pressure treated wood that I kept off the ground. No paint. No stain. It should last a couple of decades at least.

Ive built a few runs out of PT, but there is arguments if this is toxic or not. Im looking at other alternatives plus plain fir is much cheaper and easier to aquire scraps for chicken coops

 

[DobieLover]

Ive built a few runs out of PT, but there is arguments if this is toxic or not. Im looking at other alternatives plus plain fir is much cheaper and easier to aquire scraps for chicken coops

The old style PT wood was toxic as it was treated with chromated copper arsenate (CCA). Today's PT wood is made with copper quaternary salts or copper azoles which are considered non-toxic.
Regardless, the chickens don't seem to pay them any mind.
If you decide to build with kiln dried lumber, it will be much more labor intensive to preserve it and still will not last as long so in the long run, it will be more expensive.