Wood deck questions/advice

[Art Todesco]

I have a pressure treated deck which wraps around 3 sides of the house. The builder of the house/deck put the floorboards tight together because "they will shrink." Well, now I am ready to seal/stain/etc. and as he said, there is now at least 1/8" between the boards. However, at one end of the decking, the sun rarely shines and the boards are still tight. I have run a circular saw between each board and cleaned out the area up to the flashing on the house. The house siding, Hardy Plank, goes right down to the floorboards. I plan on using a toe-kick saw, vertically, to remove about 1/4" space at the bottom to provide some an area for air to move between the floorboards and the siding. I cannot stain until it is totally dry. I'm not sure it ever drys in this 15' area. I was thinking of fans underneath. I suppose I could put a tarp over the top, leaving some air space, to keep on and off rains from re-wetting. Right now it is very humid here, so, cooler fall weather should also help. Anyone have a problem like this? Any ideas on a good way to dry it out?

[Ed Pawlowski]

Wait until next year and it should be plenty dry.

[Doug]

I hope it dries out as that's not a good thing in case of termites.

Personally I like to have a deck board run parallel and close to the house and have this board removeable in case I need to treat the house for termites, etc... . This may or may not be an option for you now.

[Art Todesco]

As far as drying out on its own, the house is 3 years old and I don't think it's ever been 100% dry. BTW, the boards go perpendicular to the wall in all cases, so removing is difficult. But, the boards are treated and the wall is Hardy Plank ... so that's good. Also, there are termites in the area .... I guess they are all over the country. But here, they are not as much of a problem as in other areas like Florida. But as I stated earlier, I do want to take off about 1/4" of the siding at the bottom to get some breathing.

[hrhofmann]

Harbor Freight handie tool and a lot of patience/time.

[Dave M.]

Art,

So how old is your deck? Don't make us guess.

However, at

Does not sound as if they have dried out, yet. You may wish to rent a moisture meter since you are worried. I'd just wait till Spring and then look again. I hope you haven't screwed things up with your saw.

Dave M.

[Smitty Two]

I'm thinking that your cement fiber siding might not cut very well with a saw, but I've never tried it. An alternate approach would be to cut off the ends of the deck boards to get your air gap.

[Art Todesco]

Yup, I was going to use their Toe Kick saw, turned up 90 degrees.

[Art Todesco]

I didn't mean to leave out the age. It's only 3 years old. So it's in good shape. The guys building the house just used a regular circular saw to cut it. So, I was going to try the Toe Kick saw.

[Dave M.]

Art,

3 yrs. would be plenty of drying time in my locale. Rent a moisture meter.

Dave M.

[Doug]

Likely the hardiplank is attached to wood so that's what the termites will go after if they come. Do your best to get that area to dry / stay dry. If you have dead stumps near by, do NOT remove them so it gives the termites something to eat instead of your house. Good Luck Art. Hope you can get it to dry.