Pressure treated wood for cabinets?


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Old 07-13-19, 09:33 PM
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Pressure treated wood for cabinets?

Hi y’all!
we have to replace water damaged kitchen cabinets, the bottom ones, and we have some pressure-treated wood that we could repurpose and it’s enough to use for the whole project. Is it safe to use pressure-treated wood on indoor kitchen cabinets. Mind you they will only be holding pots and pans and appliances maybe plastic Tupperware… But I’m wondering if it is safe. Thanks for your help!
 
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Old 07-14-19, 02:17 AM
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The only way you could use pressure treated wood inside is if you were using euro cabinets (basically a 30" tall box that sits on top of a 4 1/2" tall platform frame) and you needed to build a 4 1/2" tall toekick to set them on. Those toe kick frames could be made from treated wood. But even if you do that, if it ever got wet again, you will need to remove everything to get to the wet floor and wall behind them anyway, so that it can dry out.

You should probably not build the cabinets themselves out of treated wood.
 
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Old 07-14-19, 03:27 AM
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Modern pressure treated lumber is safe. The treatment no longer uses arsenic. But, I would not build cabinets from pressure treated lumber unless it's for a rough cabin in the bush. First of all the wood is of much lower quality. The wood is soft and won't take a stain or paint very well so you'll mostly be stuck looking at greenish yellow pine. The varying dimensions of the lumber will drive you crazy if you try to do fine work. And lastly the pressure treatment is corrosive to steel and aluminum. You would have to use special fasteners and line the cabinets so your aluminum pots don't touch the wood. And, if the house floods again as XSleeper mentioned you are going to have to rip everything out again anyhow when you take the house's walls down to bare studs to dry everything out, redo the wiring and replace the insulation.

I would seriously think of having the house raised to help avoid the flooding problem in the first place.
 
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