Wheelchair Ramps

[T. C. Conde]

I am in California.

I need to build a series of Wheelchair ramps out of wood. I am using pressure treated wood for all the posts and cross supports, but what is the preferred wood for the decking? I need a non-slip surface so i don't want to use an AstroTurf-glued-to-plywood as I have seen. 5/4 Redwood? Any other ideas?

Thanks to everybody

[RicodJour]

For heavy use, harder woods are preferable, and redwood and cedar are relatively soft. They'd work, but they'd tend to splinter with heavy use. PT wood is southern yellow pine which is a fairly hard wood, but the pressure treatment makes the wood prone to checking (looks like cracks, but they're not structurally significant) and it shrinks a fair bit. It's still the most common wood for ramp decking. Ipe (pronounced eepay), and known by other names, is a very hard wood that looks good and will outlast all of the others.

be my first choice for hitting the sweet spot of affordability, durability and wearability.

If your ramps won't experience a lot of traffic, redwood is harder than cedar, and since you're in California I'd imagine it would cost less than it does here in NY.

R

[Bob Morrison]

Rico's recommendation of IPE for wood decking is a good one. The wood/plastic composites like Trex and CorrectDeck have excellent slip resistance. These require less maintenance than wood, but are more expensive.