I'm scratching my head over a situation that I thought I might ask about here:
We have a storage shed in our backyard that was experiencing some rot in the 2x4's and plywood that made up its floor. As a quick-and-dirty solution, I cut out the old wood, used pressure-treated 2x4's to replace the framing and 1/2" MDF instead of the plywood. Although MDF is more typically used in interior applications, I figured it would be less susceptible to rot than plywood would be. After installing this I put some plastic bins, buckets, etc in the shed for storage.
A month later, I was moving some of the bins and noticed a light green powder on the MDF under them. I pulled all of the stored containers out of the shed, and found the powdery material was under all of them. At first I was concerned this might be a mold, so I cleaned out the shed with diluted bleach. Now, however, I'm thinking maybe it wasn't mold but rather something leaching out of the MDF as a result of exposure to moisture (it only occurred under bins and buckets and so on which kept humidity trapped).
Does this leaching scenario sound like it makes sense? Would it be best to seal the MDF with paint? Thanks for any ideas.
We have a storage shed in our backyard that was experiencing some rot in the 2x4's and plywood that made up its floor. As a quick-and-dirty solution, I cut out the old wood, used pressure-treated 2x4's to replace the framing and 1/2" MDF instead of the plywood. Although MDF is more typically used in interior applications, I figured it would be less susceptible to rot than plywood would be. After installing this I put some plastic bins, buckets, etc in the shed for storage.
A month later, I was moving some of the bins and noticed a light green powder on the MDF under them. I pulled all of the stored containers out of the shed, and found the powdery material was under all of them. At first I was concerned this might be a mold, so I cleaned out the shed with diluted bleach. Now, however, I'm thinking maybe it wasn't mold but rather something leaching out of the MDF as a result of exposure to moisture (it only occurred under bins and buckets and so on which kept humidity trapped).
Does this leaching scenario sound like it makes sense? Would it be best to seal the MDF with paint? Thanks for any ideas.
