Floor joist - What type of wood is this?

[shadowfire]

I'm in the process of tearing out the subfloor from the crawl space and removing all the insulation due to odor contamination (mold). According to the older gentleman I bought the house from, there is no pressure-treated wood or anything like that in the floor joists, but now that I'm removing everything, I've come across this.

I'm inexperienced when it comes to identifying wood that has been treated with cuprinol or something else... what is this dark wood?

 

[Johan Gunverth]

It might be a railway sleeper full of creosote? You can tell from the smell. Get rid of those in that case.

 

[shadowfire]

It might be a railway sleeper full of creosote? You can tell by the smell. Get rid of those in that case.

Hmm, I hadn't even thought of that, but now after a bit of googling, I must admit that it seems striking, both in size and appearance... how on earth did you make that connection? It can't be a common building material exactly.

 

[magnu]

There are those who have built with decommissioned telecommunication poles as well.
Very cheap to purchase, but quite questionable, as they have the same treatment as sleepers.

Someone probably made a "bargain" and didn't understand the consequences.

 

[Johan Gunverth]

Well, you wrote "elderly gentleman" and "odor contamination" so I put two and two together. These elderly gentlemen usually have DDT, hormoslyr, and other handy things stored in their sheds.