Deck building

Some try to do it with the concrete tubes and torpedo heaters, others will use electric heat blankets, but Trex makes an oven just for this purpose.

 

Theres also a company up near Cleveland that you can send them dimensions, and they'll ship you the pieces. Tho that didn't work for me...

 

There are heaters that are made for heating up long sections to make it pliable so you can bend it. I didn't have access to one so we used heat guns, ratchet straps and brute force & ignorance. With 3 of us, I would heat up a section as best we could, one guy was pulling the long end and ratcheting the straps and another guy would install the disappearing screws to secure it. It was not easy, but it worked. Heating blankets that electricians use to heat up conduit could probably also work.

 

I originally ordered these pieces from the company in Cleveland. He asked what my inside radii were, and coming from a woodworking background where we spacialized in radii, I gave him 45-3/16" for instance. I received 48" ISR. The guy just couldn't understand why it needed to be so precise. Then I explained that putting torque on your posts was a bad thing.

So I took his pieces, post formed a jig, heated the material, loaded it in the jig, got it set and poured water on it. Worked great.

 

Heating blankets? Times have changed, back in my full time electrician days we used a device called a 'hotbox', it was about 2-1/2' long, maybe 6"x6" metal box with a hole at each end. Once it was up to temp, you flip open the top lid, lay the pvc in for a few seconds, then walla you bend as needed.....worked wonders.



As far as decking options go, my sister had a deck installed what has to be going on 10 yrs now, a friend of the family did the work and he suggested she go with a mahogany [or cumaru, not sure] deck board since he knew she wasn't gonna keep up with maintenance too well. I've never seen a deck board stay flat, true and look so damn good to this day. I always said if I ever go with a wooden deck I'm gonna go with that decking option....I THINK it only requires oiling every other yr or something, I'm telling ya, def check it out.

 

Don't you love that? What's a few inches among friends.

Deck looks Great.

 

Looks good.

 

IPE is very similar and a little cheaper than cumaru. They both hold up very well with little maintenance.

 

I built mine a couple years ago. I used premium grade pressure treated for the joists and posts, VEKAdeck for the decking and handrails, and I also wrapped the posts with vinyl “caps”.

Very pretty deck, maintenance free, and rock solid.

 

Mahogany is very soft,so likely cumaru. IPE is a great option as well and as mentioned......and holds up to extreme weather and abuse. The Nats are still using the dugout benches I made years ago, and those things get serious abuse.

 

You know, after looking at images of that IPE, it may very well be that stuff. If they're known to stay flat/true/no warping it likely is.

 

What's the benefit of going with IPE or Cumaru vs Trex? Looks like the cost is about the same between the two of them.

 

My buddy just built his dock using IPE wood. It's beautiful, but needs pressure cleaning and oiling every 6 months to keep looking like new.

I know the trex boards get hot, but if you stain wood with semi transparent stain, it gets hot as hell too. My dock is pressure treated wood, and I pressure clean and stain the whole thing every year. Despite that, I still find the occasional rotten board every 3 months or so. Whoever built it didn't bother putting tar paper tape on top of the joists so they are mostly rotten on top. Swapping to trex boards also requires adding extra stringers as the trex board needs less than 16" centers between stringers.

 

Some ppl just prefer the look and feel of natural wood. Most decks I've seen with pine split, warp, twist, etc.... the stuff they used on my sisters place didn't ever do that.

 

that's why i put our joists at 12" and not 16"

 

I redid mine w/ Trex. Yes, it does get hot. But that outweighs the bullshit of having to maintain a wood deck.

 

Can't believe you think we would do that...

 

i built my deck to add a pergola (which it has now) then to add a roof to that and then walls and then floor and then oh wait, i have another room....