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Is this a specialty board?

2K views 23 replies 12 participants last post by  gj13us 
#1 ·
So, this is not a "fine" woodworking question, but it does involve lumber. I am VERY NEW to woodworking and home improvement. One of the boards on our deck has rotted. I cut off a small piece and took it to the local building supply company. They say it's not a standard piece of wood. A cross-section of the board is shown in the first photo. As I measure it, the width is 5" and the height is 1 5/16". What do you think: Is this a custom piece of lumber or should I be able to find it at a lumber yard? If it is a custom piece, what type of facility will manufacture this for me...or can I easily reproduce it from something larger at the lumber yard?

Thank you in advance for any assistance you can offer.

Paola
 

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#2 ·
if you were in Arizona or near the desert somewhere,
I would say that the wood had shrunk from the nominal size.
so now you are stuck with a decision. . . . .
custom cut or shim the few pieces that need to be replaced
or replace the whole deck.

.

.
 
#3 ·
a 2x6 actual is 5.5 x 1.5

any shop with a table saw and thickness planner can "make it to size"
the edges look to rounded over - that's a router job
are there two grooves the length of the board on the bottom? that's similar to flooring, but somewhat unusual for decking.


I would use pressure treated - but make sure it has dried out. a lot of pressure treated stuff is sopping wet - makes working it harder and when it does dry out it will have shrunk from your 'custom made dimensions'
 
#4 ·
It's in such bad shape it's difficult to make out what it is. My guess is it's redwood. Is it light in weight? In any case it has such a pasty finish on it you could use most anything to replace it. I would be inclined to use pressure treated pine. It would last more than a decade with nothing on it and it's a lot cheaper than redwood.

The pressure treated wood will likely be fresh from the factory and dripping wet. If you use that I would install it and wait a few months before putting a finish on it so it has a chance to dry well.
 
#5 ·
It's a "deck" board .....

The thickness at 1 5/16" tells me it's a deck board, not a 2 X 6 construction board in addition the rounded corners are typical of deck boards. The width is a bit undersize at 5 1/8" but that's within limits.


Very common size at the box stores or lumber yards.....
 
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#6 ·
I agree with Bill - it's a deck board.

if for some reason, you believe it is something special, cut a 1" piece off the end and take a good photo of the end grain the long board.
The reason for cutting 1" off the end is so we can hopefully see a clean end grain and then identify it.
 
#7 ·
The lumber yard should have a deck board, it will be thinner, possibly just over an inch thick, pick up a length of cedar lath which will be around 1/4" thick to use as shims on the joists to make up the difference in thickness. If you sort through the lath you may find one the right thickness to combine with the deck board to match the originals, if not you may have to plane it down.
 
#8 ·
Thank you so much. It amazes me how there can be simple solutions (shims) that I just don't think of. All comments on cutting 1" inch for closer examination, letting wood dry, finishing with appropriate finish, etc., are duly noted. The collective expertise of this group is truly wonderful.

Paola
 
#9 ·
Unless water pooled around that specific board I seriously doubt that one of the boards rotted. I would get a sharp awl and start poking at all the boards and at all the understructure.

My old deck had some serious rot on some of the understructure which I replaces as soon as I moved in. Over the years I have replaced all the understructure and all the decking, but in a piece-meal fashion. The old deck was grandfathered in. I could not get a permit for a new deck. So all of this work was "repairs". Very similar to George Washington's original axe in which the handle had been replaces 6 times and the head had been replaced twice, my deck is also "original". About 4 feet of ledger board remains from the original deck and also the concrete filled steel posts.

You may be facing a similar situation. You can check the individual boards and replace as required or you can go ahead and check the understructure and then replace the deck boards all at once.
 
#10 ·
Hmmm, good idea, Packard. I'm not quite sure of the history of this deck. Part of the deck is screened in and has a different decking. The open (non-screened) part of the deck is different in appearance, has almost no space between the boards and has twice as frequent joists. I'm guessing the open part of the deck has been resurfaced or added at a later time. This one board is obviously "soft", but many of the others, while seemingly sound in strength, are significantly split. It appears that in summer the deck is in full sun.
 
#11 ·
On my deck the joists that were sistered up (touching each other running side by side) had the most rot. Water got trapped betwen the sandwich of the two joists.

When I replaced the joists I put narrow roofing tape (black rubber tape about 6" wide) over the sistered joists to prevent the water from pooling there.

Also my deck was made from Douglas fir, which was a decent choice in 1953, but not in 2019. Nowadays pressure treated lumber would be used. If you lived in Phoenix you might get by with regular lumber, but in Maryland you are going to want to use pressure treated lumber. And screws or nails designed for decks. Never use drywall screws on a deck.

Recently there have been structural screws for the understructure. Do not use the deck fastening screws for the understructure.

Before I moved into the house I had a handyman from Lowes replace two of the worst joists. He used drywall screws. It decided it for me: I would have to do the rest of the deck myself.
 
#12 ·
I put narrow roofing tape (black rubber tape about 6" wide) over the sistered joists to prevent the water from pooling there.

Similar here, 30lb roofing felt tar paper the black stuff cut to size sandwiched between every two weather exposed pieces of wood for example on top the 12 OC joists that support duck boards all of which span over a swale in my front yard making a kind of ground flush deck ... a few parts of which were cut freehand on a table saw.
 
#15 ·
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#19 ·
HERE in Ohio that is a 5/4 x 6 deck board that has been stained, weathered and shrunken from the sun. check around your local stores, Lowes, 84 Lumber, Carter, Home Depot, Menards and one will carry it. Might be called premium decking to get that size.
Use Stainless Steel fasteners, hot dip galvanized screws or nails, basically what the board manufacturer recommends based on what it is treated with.
Figure you need to pressure wash that deck and then look closely at it and find what other boards need replaced.
BASED on what you want to spend now and what you need to put off you will then need to decide to replace all deck boards now to just enough to buy a year or two.
Good luck
 
#20 ·
Of greater importance is the condition of the understructure. Check that too. If the deck is just a few inches off the ground, not much of a safety issue. My deck is about 10 or 11 feet off the ground and overlooks a steep fall off so If the deck collapsed it would end up being a 30" fall--and a serious safety issue.

That steep fall off is why I had to retain the old deck. The new code required pouring a post support nearly 12 feet deep and two deck companies declined to quote on replacing the deck and the third wanted $3,500.00 per post (4 posts = $14,000.00 for just the posts). So I rebuilt the deck.
 
#22 ·
Not likely, Gus

So, this is not a "fine" woodworking question, but it does involve lumber. I am VERY NEW to woodworking and home improvement. One of the boards on our deck has rotted. I cut off a small piece and took it to the local building supply company. They say it's not a standard piece of wood. A cross-section of the board is shown in the first photo. As I measure it, the width is 5" and the height is 1 5/16". What do you think: Is this a custom piece of lumber or should I be able to find it at a lumber yard? If it is a custom piece, what type of facility will manufacture this for me...or can I easily reproduce it from something larger at the lumber yard?

Thank you in advance for any assistance you can offer.

Paola
A store might list it as a pressure treated stair tread. The pressure treated stair treads on our deck are thicker than the deck boards.

From the photos he posted, it appears to be from the deck itself, but you could be right? It's quite narrow for a stair thread as well at 5" wide, with rounded edges and 2 drain tunnels on the bottom.
I'm thinking older deck board, possibly not even pressure treated?


:vs_cool:
 
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