Wood panel nails leaking?

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Matt42

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Hi,

We had our garden renovated a year ago. I think the nails are leaking rust or similar from the cedar panels on the fence and shed. It looks ugly. Why is it doing this and is there anything I can do to fix it before it gets even worse? Shouldn't they have used galvanised nails or similar?

TIA

John
 

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It is the rust combining with Tannins in the wood making ink. If you want mark free the only option is true stainless steel nails, not the cheap ebay or similar "chinese stainless". Once you have changed the nails, then a wash with oxalic acid (wear gloves and mask it is a poison) will remove the blue/black marks
 
Even galvanised will not last long before rusting.

Fences are considered somewhat disposable. On my house cladding and shed I use brass or stainless screws. The roofers formerly used expensive bronze nails, but now stainless.

I am in a coastal area where I have found even stout steel bolts rust through outdoors.
 
Pic of my BiL's galvanised roof after exposure to coastal weather and (quite a lot of) time.


[GALLERY=media, 15096][/GALLERY]

[GALLERY=media, 15090][/GALLERY]

[GALLERY=media, 15087][/GALLERY]
 
Some woods like larch, cedar, etc are prone to this with galvanised nails.

I use mainly larch, but I've never used a stainless nail in my life (yet!), I don't do anything that ornate, and it seems pot luck if you get stains or not
 
I've installed both larch strip and cedar strip cladding on building exteriors. You can gauge the expected duration of the cladding and/or how cheap the architect is by the nails they specify. For a good quality durable job they will specify cedar cladding and stainless steel nails (sometimes even 15ga nails which seem substantially thicker than the more common 16ga), for jobs with a tighter budget/shorter expected lifespan/cheaper architect they'll specify larch and won't specify the nail type (so they will get 16ga galvalised - you don't see 16ga or 15ga bare steel pins much in the UK as it just rusts in the tool box/van and once it has rusted it jams the guns)

OP - pull the strips off one at a time, pull the pin through the back of the lath then renail with stainless. Black and red rust marks will come off with oxallic acid as others have said. I buy mine in crystal form and mix up as required. Remember, it is an acid, so treat with respect, and add the crystals to water and not the other way round
 
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Could I just 'wash' the front of the cedar panels with oxallic acid, If I wait until all the 'leaking' has finished? Or will the leaking continue until the nail has disintegrated and the panel falls off? The thought of removing all the panels seems a job too far for me especially the ones on the shed which look to be more of an integral feature.
 
Matt42 said:
...willl the leaking continue until the nail has disintegrated and the panel falls off?
Click to expand...
You'll continue to get rust created until the nails have completely disintegrated. Oxallic acid will probably only delay that process until the next rain. Sometimes you just have to take the hit and do the work
 
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