Yella Wood / Great Southern Wood Preserving review: Bad Actor 30

I purchased all my yellowwood from home depot in Pell City Alabama. My deck was rotten in 2.5 to 3 years. After much complaining they replaced sever thousand dollars worth> It took 2 men 3 days the tear apart the rotted wood and then 3 days to replace it with the supplied wood. Oh yes I also had to dispose of the several trailer loads of the rotted wood. All at my expense except for the replacement wood. Now app 3.5 to 4 years later I have 5/4 boards rotting again in multiple locations along with quite a few joist that have rotted making it unsafe to let my grankids get on it. I have always in the past heard good things about yellow wood and it makes me angry that all the work and expense will now have to be redone. What can be done about all this crap wood that they are selling for treated. Unhappy Danny

rotten wood, see my complaint above

they did not include my photos but here they are, 5mb is a joke for size for a tiny pic cannot show detail

All of the micronized copper azole wood deteriorates in less than 3 to five years even the ground contact 0.15lbs/cf treated wood when it is used on an above ground deck.

Micronized copper azole 0.15 pcf from two separate projects at diff times failed

I was a chemist working in the treated wood industry and in the AWPA for 14 years and I have never seen any failures as bad as this.

They forced this replacement product on all to replace CCA.

They are aware of these failures and appear to be colluding to hide these catastrophic failures across the USA. Many states have even modified their building codes since treated wood is not dependable anymore and do not allow posts to be under ground at all.

I am a chemist who worked in the treated wood industry for 15+ years and I promise you that the new treated wood is all garbage. The issue all started when the left wingnuts in California forced the outlaw of CCA treated wood (chromated Copper Arsenate). This wood had fixed chemicals in it that were very safe with a history of over 50 years with less than 1 or two dogs reported harmed from it. So basically unless your dog ate the equivalent of a very large piece of wood, it was the safest and best treated wood product ever invented by man. if a dog ate this much wood he would often die not from the chemicals but the wood in his GI tract. Please refer to the AWPA (American Wood Protection Association) and refer to your end tags off the wood from your projects.

You had to have kept at least one or one is left on the end of a piece of wood. The CCA product had 0.40 lbs/cf of wood and this was called ground contact, and this wood would last up to 30-50 years and almost never rotted but was subject to some mechanical damage from shrinking and swelling so much.

The new stuff (many new non-toxic formulas that are also non-toxic to fungus and termites) like what Lowes sells mostly of is the micronized copper which is total trash and failure rates can be literally less than 3 years. The problem is multifold since the new chemicals are much more expensive than the CCA, so they lowered the retention in pcf to make it marketable compared to composites and the old CCA treated wood. They also allowed the b%stard treaters mix their own chemicals who take the current specs and treat right on the barest edge of spec, and therefore not much penetration and fixing of chemical for a chemical that is already very inferior.

These failure rates have been astronomical and many are not even reported. Look on the end tag and call the plant to put in a claim for your failure. They have very long warranties which are now a joke and called upon often these days compared to the CCA treated wood where there was less than 0.001% of the time. The plants listed on the end tags are generally not cooperative either and always want to blame the customer just like the [censored] who commented above that marine grade is needed anywhere even near water. I tried contacting several people at Osmose but all the treated wood chemical companies have been bought or sold several times in the last 15 years.

The issue is that the treated wood products being sold today are defective and there are several class action law suits on these bad products.

This has personally cost me over $23,000 in 2022 and over $3000 in 2017. If I do not get relief in some way, I have already contacted a few of the attorneys working on class action lawsuits for these consumer issues of a defective product. There are many neighbors that have experienced the same issues as witnessed by talking to contractors and also on nextdoor.com.

This is huge and is not being discussed yet in mainstream media.

I built my deck with yellow wood. Worst wood in the world. Turned black and you could step though it anywhere. Like it wasn’t treated at all

Failing joists on a 8 year deck right now with Yellawood. Contractor has come back and says he is having issues with many of his decks where he used Yellawood and the company is now saying they weren't sealed/treated after installation by said contractor. I asked him to repair with Lowe's wood instead, screws just popping out and not biting into wood that is rotted/deteriorated. Upon visual inspection, it is black and separated in many places. It's a mess... said contractor has had rep out who approved replacement of one deck but now has a list of "what caused the problem" with the assumption that they are trying to pin this on the contractor.

I spent thousands of dollars building a deck and retaining wall with yellow wood around my home. because my home is built into the side of the Hill it's a major problem for me and I don't have the money to replace it. Was built 13 years ago but started to rot only after 5 years. To the person whom ask if we are real people or competitors telling lies about yellow wood. If u build with it after reading these comments u get what u deserve. Don't say u was not warned!

Absolutely true on every point.
A terrible product.
Sadly the building material's often pushed into the construction industry prove to be inferior a short time after introduction.

I built a deck with yellawood in October 2010 and it started rotting two years later. I have had it painted three times.I had some boards replaced in July 2017 but now as of April 2021 All of my boards are rotten. The yellow wood rep came out in f2018 and offered to replace a few boards but I declined since all of the lumber was beginning to crack and rot.I have had a lawyer look at this pier three times and four different contractors look at the problem and all agree that the boards need to be replaced.I may have to sue the company if they do not do the right thing. I am just sick that I spent a lot of money trusting the company to sell a good product.

As there a current lawsuit going on against this company? We also have a deck made with Yella Wood rotting to hell.

I'm trying to upload images.

Check out the fungis that grows inside this wood!

This is what my deck has done. It started twisting, splitting boards at first but now just black spots and boards rotting from inside out!

I hope you have filed a complaint!

The Yelkawood joists on a deck totally rotted out within 5 years.

The Yella Wood on my little back porch was rotting in only two years of being built. I have untreated wood outside that has lasted much longer than that The stuff is crap. I asked a man about it that builds decks and boat docks and he said they won't use it, stay away from it.

In this case I think the company earned it's bad name. Not aware of the owner's personality and proclivities and really don't car about them. The fact is their decking and lumber products failed prematurely. Very prematurely.

Wish I would have saw this before using the Yella Wood products. What should have been a one and done project now needs to be done over due to their inferior products. Their pressure treated pine lasted several years and then rotted. Older portions of my deck were built prior to this and using a different product. That portion is still like new. All decking was sealed and stained yearly so the the premature failure of the Yella Wood leads me to suspect the pressure treatment process was insufficient. In thirty plus years as a homeowner and deck builder this is the first time I have ever had this happen to a deck I built using pressure treated lumber.