Attic Wood Leaking Sap

Turpentine works perfect for this purpose and it will not damage the quality of the wood.

Attic wood leaking sap.

Amber or rosin is great if you save it and use it for stuff like stickum on tools etc. Amber is fossilized resin. Sap is just sugar and water. While there are complex chemical components found in tree sap it s easy to compare sap to blood.

Usually if the wood is properly kiln dried it bakes away. Sap can caused a problem on decks and in houses where wood beams are used for support. Use a coarse plastic sponge to scrape the oozed resinous compounds and go over the surface of the wood with a clean towel. Just use a razor bladed scraper remove off the timber and let it be.

When it is wet it is sticky and can rub off on clothing or attract dust and dirt. You can try removing sap with several different cleaning techniques but there is a chance it will come back. Treat the knot areas with extra coats of the finishing material. Like kevin said the attic heat restores this to a liquid form and it flows out.

The sap when in live trees carries nutrients throughout the tree that helps to keep it alive. When it dries it hardens and becomes difficult to remove creating unsightly spots or bumps in the wood surface. For a start you need to clean all the sap which is gradually crystallizing on the top of the affected wood. Similarly when a tree is damaged the sap can bleed out.

Much of the wood produced for framing lumber has pitch pockets or areas of crystalized resin. Attic ambering refers to wooden beams in the attic having sap leak out. These materials slow the leakage by clogging the wood grain pores but will not stop it completely. To prevent sap from leaking out of deck boards it needs to be finished with paint stain or deck waterproofing.