AngryOldWhiteGuy wrote:
I used hand-picked 5\4 x 6 PT pine decking to resurface my deck and I
wasn't too happy with how much the decking shrunk - I guess I should
have stacked it outside to air dry for a while (week or two?) before
screwing it onto the deck joists - my mistake, I guess, live and
learn. The other problem I saw was that even though I oriented the
wood correctly based on the direction or the ring pattern visible at
the end of the board, I saw a fair amount of cupping (ends turning
up) - maybe that's due to the 5\4 thickness versus the thickness of a
traditional 2 x 6. And, I found that I should have bought 16'
lengths versus trying to save a few bucks using shorter lengths and
butting them together - with the shrinkage, there's a fair bit of
space between ends where they butted together - yeah, in the middle
of the deck surface - looks terrible.
LOL, I learned a lot.
As to replacing the decking - composite or plastic decking is out of
my price range - I was going to use 16' 2 x 6s - and I'm trying to
decide between PT pine or cedar - cedar prices out at 2X PT pine.
Will I expreience the same amount of shrinkage with smooth sided cedar
versus PT pine? Would I need to let either of them dry before
screwing them to the joists? Any special type of screw to use with
cedar, versus the DeckScrews I used on the PT pine, if I go with
cedar?
PT is soaking wet when you buy it, takes months to dry. During that time it
may turn into a pretzel; well, not quite but it frequently warps a lot. I
avoid it whenever I can and I sure wouldn't use it for a deck.
Don't know much about cedar except it is soft. That and that it will stain
badly from iron/non-stainless steel fastenings. Same with oak. I wouldn't
use cedar for a deck.
Southern yellow pine (not pressure treated SYP) is decent...hard and strong.
Someone mentioned ipe; I've never had occasion to use it but I have a credit
card sized one about 3/4" thick on my desk that I use as a paper weight.
IOW, hard, strong (VERY) and very durable.
Ipe gets my vote.
--
dadiOH
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