Decking - boards, knots, splits

We've just had some decking laid by a professional. He's coming back to finish tomorrow and generally has done a really neat job.

We did notice some knots on the decking - vary from just marks to partial holes & in one case a complete hole. Also noticed a couple of decking boards have a split (surface) along.

How much of this is to expected, and how much should we get corrected?

Reply to
jonesn
Loading thread data ...

Knots cannot be avoided. Actual holes or bad splits at start of deck's life ought to be. If he screwed them as he should have done, they will be easy to replace. The advantage of DIY is that you get to pick your boards, rejecting any you don't like. E.g. in Jewsons the other day the guy picked through several bits of 4x2 until there were ones I liked. Whereas if you ask 'em to deliver x of y, you'll get what they send. Nothing wrong in that case in rejecting what they sent. I know DIYs & pros who do it all the time. Moral is: if you want something doing to YOUR standards, then do it yourself, or at least select the materials.

Reply to
OldBill

Hi

First of all, timber is a natural product, so knots are part of the deal. You want timber, you accept knots.

However, a professional should sort & cut the boards to avoid the really bad bits. So I'd say marks are OK, complete hole isn't.

Splits are also a kind of natural fault that should be sorted & cut around if they are bad. Timber expands & contracts, so you may well have more splits by next year anyway.

But you have to ask yourself how much you were prepared to pay for the job. I'd normally cost a simple deck as material + 10% for bad bits. If you want

100% perfect you would have to add maybe 25% for bad bits.

Dave

Reply to
David Lang

Hi,

Nothing really wrong with this though it could be a bit unsightly to some people. I bought a fair bit of decking and there are no partial or missing knots.

Maybe he could reposition the board with the hole so it's in a less conspicious place?

If the decking is not protected with anything it probably will end up with quite a few surface splits, where the surface dries out and shrinks quicker than the wood underneath. Also if the ends are not protected they can split as they dry out faster than the rest of the board.

If you don't want to use wood stain on it, it can be treated with 'Seasonite':

formatting link
staining it then getting the right colour on pine can be a bit of an art, Sikkens Cetol 'HLS' is supposed to be pretty good for decking.

Also did he treat the cut ends by dunking them in clear wood preserver?

cheers, Pete.

Reply to
Pete C

HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.