Mixing treated and non treated wood

[head1855]

I am trying to build my coop as cheap as possible. In doing so I have asked all friends, family, and acquaintances for their scrap wood. Doing this I have gotten a mixture of treated and non treated wood. I have been careful to use the non treated lumber in places that will not be as exposed to the elements (i.e. floor joist). I am using treated for any wood that I have to buy. My question is what to do about finishing the non treated wood.... if anything. If I have to prime and paint, I would be looking for a nontoxic solution of course. Depending on what other wood I get I may paint the whole coop and run or leave it natural. Suggestions????

 

[Bear Foot Farm]

Leaving it "natural" will result in it looking very different where you use different woods.

Use treated anywhere it contacts the ground or is exposed to weather, and then paint the whole thing if you're concerned about appearance.
An oil based paint will work best on the treated wood

 

[ericnash]

I used wood stain on my coop so that I didn't have the paint peeling and the chickens eating the paint chip. So far it has worked out great and it still looks like new!

 

[coolcanoechic]

I used two kinds of stain. On the treated wood, I used minwax stain since I used freshly treated wood from the lumber yard. You need to wait six months before painting treated wood for it to dry enough for the paint to stick. I didn't want to wait that long, so the Minwax worked out very well to colorize the treated wood.

On my untreated wood, I used acrylic stain. It works like stain and looks like paint or stain depending on how opaque you want it. They have several choices in opacity. The nice thing about it is that since it works like stain, you don't have to prime. Sweet! It saves time and money, and is safe because it is acrylic. It is made by CABOT. It takes two coats. Paint takes one coat of primer and two coats of paint.

You can see the results on my coop page.
I wish the best of luck to you with your build!

 

[Joe.G]

Since you are using diffrent woods they will all age diffrent, I would use a stain Cabots makes a nice product. I am leaving mine all untreated because I am going for the old barn look, My 4x4's are the only thing that I used that was treated and I may use a stain on them once the rest of the wood ages to try and get it to match.