A friend had a porch built about 10 years ago. The contractor used pressure treated lumber but now, the wood is warping an cupping. I need to replace it to make it safe to walk on. Also, the contractor nailed it rather than screwed it together so the nails are working their way out.
What type of wood should I use for the replacement? I'm looking for no rotting and no physical changes.
Wood? IPE. Or good redwood, if you can get it. Consider the synthetic deck boards like Trex et al.
sdb
Check Consumer Reports at the library. Either use composition material review by them or double thickness planks of treated lumber. I will use composition boards for my next deck.
I would look at the environment on the two opposing surfaces. It's quite possible that there is enough humidity below the deck and enough drying of the upper surface to promote cupping & warping.
Second, pressure treated wood has high moisture content. Look at kiln dried pressure treated. That's expensive. Let the wood come to a more nearly steady state while stacked on the porch. This is time consuming and there will be a high percentage of rejects.
TB
I just replaced all of the 2X6 badly weathered PT boards on my deck. My joists spanned 2 feet apart, so if I wanted to use the composite stuff I would have had to beef up the entire deck with more joists to be 16" OC. So I just stuck with the same PT wood. It was cheaper. And I think the previous owner did not maintain the deck well. At least now I know I will maintain it.
Thanks. I like the idea of synthetic deck boards and I'll go looking for them. Redwood is nice but it tends to splinter.
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