Wolmanized wood: How to order treated wood that lasts

Wolmanized wood is not a species or a grade. It is a brand of pressure-treated wood, the trademarked name for lumber, timbers, poles, and piling treated under the Wolman® name, and for most of the last century it was treated with chromated copper arsenate (CCA). The name became so common that people still use it as a stand-in for treated wood in general, the way folks say Kleenex for tissue. So when a customer calls and asks for Wolmanized wood, they almost always mean pressure-treated wood.

The reason the term stuck is history. Wolman® was the original name in pressure treating, and it dominated the market for so long that the brand and the product became the same word in a lot of people’s minds. We built part of our early reputation advertising Wolmanized wood, so we know the term well.

Below is the straight story: where the name comes from, what changed in 2003, and what to actually ask for today.

What Wolmanized wood actually is

Wolmanized wood is pressure-treated wood sold under the Wolman® brand. The wood itself, southern pine, poles, piling, and timbers, is placed in a pressure cylinder and forced full of a waterborne preservative that protects it from fungal decay and termite attack. Historically that preservative was CCA. The trademark has covered lumber, plywood, timbers, poles, piling, and more for decades.

The distinction that trips people up: “Wolmanized” describes who branded the treatment, not a different chemistry from other treated wood on the same standard. According to the Southern Forest Products Association, pressure-treated southern pine is produced to preservative retention levels set by the American Wood Protection Association (AWPA). A properly treated board from one licensed brand meets the same retention target as another. The brand is the label. The standard is what protects the wood.

Where the Wolman name came from

The name traces to Dr. Karl Heinrich Wolman, a German wood preservation pioneer. By the company’s own account, the firm he founded, Allgemeine Holzimprägnierung Dr. Wolman GmbH, was established in 1911, and it built more than a century of wood preservation work on his name. As pressure treating spread through the twentieth century, Wolman® grew into the best-known name in the category. That is how a trademark quietly turns into an everyday word. Enough people asked for the brand by name that the brand became the name for the whole product.

You still hear it constantly. A contractor who has been building for forty years will call and ask for Wolmanized wood without a second thought. A younger builder may never have heard the term. Both are usually after the same thing: dependable pressure-treated wood for a job that sees weather, soil, or water.

The brand’s corporate history is a story of its own. Dr. Wolman’s original German company became part of BASF in 1980 and today sits within the Sika group. In North America, the Wolmanized® brand and its preservatives have changed hands several times, passing through companies including Koppers and Lonza, and today are managed by Arch Wood Protection under Arxada, the specialty chemicals business formerly known as Lonza Wood Protection. Through all of it, the name stuck, which tells you how much recognition it carried. It now spans a family of products, Wolmanized® Outdoor® Wood and Wolmanized EraWood® for residential use, and Wolmanized® Heavy Duty™ wood treated with Wolmanac® CCA for the industrial and marine side.

What changed in 2003, and why it matters

This is the part worth getting right. The original Wolmanized wood was treated with chromated copper arsenate, CCA, and CCA carried arsenic. Over concerns about arsenic in residential settings, the manufacturers reached a voluntary agreement with the EPA to move consumer uses to a new generation of preservatives. As the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency documents, that voluntary cancellation of virtually all residential CCA uses took effect December 31, 2003. It was a voluntary transition, not an outright ban, which is why the chemistry still exists for the right jobs today.

Two things happened as a result, and both still matter when you order today:

• For residential and general consumer uses, the Wolmanized brand moved off CCA and onto copper azole, a preservative without arsenic. So “Wolmanized wood” bought at a lumberyard today is almost certainly a copper-based product, not the CCA product of decades past.
• CCA did not disappear. The EPA classifies chromated arsenicals as restricted-use products, applied only by certified pesticide applicators, and they remain approved for non-consumer industrial, marine, agricultural, foundation, highway, and utility-pole uses. For the heavy structural and marine work we do most, CCA-treated southern pine is still specified, still standardized, and still the right call in the right application.

On safety, it helps to be precise about what the EPA actually found. In its review, the agency identified cancer and non-cancer risks of concern for workers at treatment plants, which is why CCA is applied only by certified applicators under controlled conditions, but it did not find health risks of concern for the general public from CCA-treated wood in service. Modern residential Wolmanized wood, meanwhile, uses arsenic-free copper azole. Used and handled as recommended, treated wood delivers decades of service. We help customers match the treatment to the job so the right product ends up in the right place.

Is CCA still legal, and what is its current status

Yes. CCA is currently legal and available for industrial, marine, agricultural, and utility uses, and it is going through the EPA’s routine registration review, the reevaluation the agency runs for every pesticide about every fifteen years.

The direction of that review has been steady rather than dramatic. In its Interim Decision, the EPA added mitigation measures to further protect the workers who apply the chemical, and manufacturers have been updating their product labels to match. As recently as August 2025, the EPA accepted an amended CCA product label bringing it into line with the Chromated Arsenicals Interim Registration Review Decision. In plain terms: CCA-treated piling, poles, and timbers remain a current, code-referenced product for the applications they are approved for, with tighter handling rules on the treatment side, not the jobsite side. We keep an eye on this, because when a market-condition or regulatory detail shifts, it changes what we recommend.

Wolmanized wood: Then and now

Feature	Original Wolmanized wood	Today
Primary preservative	CCA (chromated copper arsenate)	Copper azole for residential; CCA for industrial/marine
Contains arsenic	Yes	No for residential copper azole; yes for CCA lines
Consumer use of CCA	Common before 2004	Voluntarily canceled, effective Dec 31, 2003
Regulatory status of CCA	Fully registered	Restricted-use; in EPA registration review (label update accepted Aug 2025)
Typical uses	Decks, fences, poles, piling, marine	Residential: decks, fences. Industrial: poles, piling, foundations, marine

Do we carry Wolmanized wood

We do not stock or sell wood under the Wolman® brand label, because that is a specific licensed trademark. What we do supply is the pressure-treated wood, poles, and piling the term actually refers to, treated to the AWPA retention levels your application calls for. If you ask us for Wolmanized wood, we know what you mean, and we will get you the correctly treated product for your project.

That is the consultative part of how we work. We ask what the wood is for, where it lives, ground contact, fresh water, saltwater immersion, above-ground framing, and then match the species, treatment, and retention to that use. It is the same reason a customer asking for CCA marine piling and a customer asking for a treated fence post both get the right thing even though they used different words to describe it. You can see our treated lumber and timber products or just call and describe the job.

What to ask for instead of a brand name

Because “Wolmanized” no longer tells a supplier which chemistry or retention you need, the useful thing to specify is the application and the standard. Four questions get you to the right product fast:

• What is the exposure? Above ground, ground contact, fresh water, or saltwater immersion. This drives everything else.
• What retention does the use category require? AWPA sets retention by use category, and higher exposure means higher retention. Marine and foundation work sit at the top.
• What preservative fits? Copper azole and ACQ for most residential and above-ground work, CCA for restricted industrial, marine, and agricultural uses.
• Is it structural? Poles and piling are graded and treated to different standards than dimensional lumber. Our marine and foundation piling are treated for exactly that duty.

Get those four right and the brand on the label stops mattering. That is the whole point. Wolmanized wood was a great brand, and the name earned its place in the vocabulary, but a modern spec is written around exposure, retention, and standard, not a trademark. We are glad to walk through it with you. Call our team at (800) 716-0636 and describe what you are building.

Frequently asked questions

Is Wolmanized wood the same as pressure-treated wood?

Effectively yes, for everyday purposes. Wolmanized wood is a brand of pressure-treated wood under the Wolman® name. When someone asks for Wolmanized wood, they almost always mean standard pressure-treated wood.

Does Wolmanized wood still contain arsenic?

Residential Wolmanized wood no longer uses CCA and is arsenic-free copper azole. CCA-treated wood, which does contain arsenic, remains available only for restricted industrial, marine, and agricultural uses after manufacturers voluntarily canceled residential CCA uses, effective December 31, 2003.

Can I still buy CCA-treated wood?

Yes, for non-consumer uses. CCA is EPA-approved for industrial, marine, agricultural, foundation, highway, and utility-pole applications. It is a restricted-use product applied only by certified applicators, and not sold for general residential use. It is a strong choice for marine piling and foundation work.

Is CCA being banned or phased out right now?

No. CCA is going through the EPA’s routine registration review, which happens for every pesticide about every fifteen years. The recent changes have tightened worker protections on the treatment side, and manufacturers updated product labels to match, with an amended label accepted in August 2025. The approved wood products remain available.

Who makes Wolmanized wood now?

The Wolman® brand and its preservatives are managed by Arch Wood Protection under Arxada, formerly Lonza Wood Protection. Independent licensed treaters produce the wood. The brand traces back to Dr. Karl Heinrich Wolman, whose German wood preservation company was founded in 1911, and the North American brand has changed corporate owners several times since.

If I need treated wood for a dock or foundation, what should I order?

Specify the exposure and let the standard drive the treatment. Saltwater and foundation work call for higher AWPA retention and often CCA-treated piling. Tell us the application and we will match species, treatment, and retention to it.

Sources and references

• American Wood Protection Association (AWPA), treatment standards and use categories: awpa.com
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Overview of Wood Preservative Chemicals, including the voluntary cancellation of residential CCA uses effective December 31, 2003: epa.gov
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Chromated Arsenicals (CCA) registration review and Interim Decision: epa.gov/chromated-arsenicals-cca
• Southern Forest Products Association, pressure-treated southern pine: southernpine.com
• Arxada / Arch Wood Protection, current steward of the Wolman® and Wolmanized® brands in North America: arxada.com
• Wolman (BASF / Sika), official company history confirming the 1911 founding by Dr. Karl Heinrich Wolman: wolman.de