Attic Wood Leaking Sap

When it dries it hardens and becomes difficult to remove creating unsightly spots or bumps in the wood surface.

Attic wood leaking sap.

Amber is fossilized resin. These materials slow the leakage by clogging the wood grain pores but will not stop it completely. Sap can caused a problem on decks and in houses where wood beams are used for support. The reason it is leaking out of the wood there is because it looks like there was a particularliy resinous knot in the pine.

Treat the knot areas with extra coats of the finishing material. Amber or rosin is great if you save it and use it for stuff like stickum on tools etc. Much of the wood produced for framing lumber has pitch pockets or areas of crystalized resin. You can try removing sap with several different cleaning techniques but there is a chance it will come back.

While there are complex chemical components found in tree sap it s easy to compare sap to blood. Turpentine works perfect for this purpose and it will not damage the quality of the wood. Sap is just sugar and water. Like kevin said the attic heat restores this to a liquid form and it flows out.

Usually if the wood is properly kiln dried it bakes away. For a start you need to clean all the sap which is gradually crystallizing on the top of the affected wood. The sap when in live trees carries nutrients throughout the tree that helps to keep it alive. Hopefully not on your hands as you steady your walk through the attic.

To prevent sap from leaking out of deck boards it needs to be finished with paint stain or deck waterproofing. When it is wet it is sticky and can rub off on clothing or attract dust and dirt. Attic ambering refers to wooden beams in the attic having sap leak out. Similarly when a tree is damaged the sap can bleed out.