Gents, looking for your ideas to protect completed outside deck areas from various construction hazards. Sometimes these are sections of multi-level projects. Others are finished jobs but have other trades working on the site. Hazards could be extension ladders with the feet digging in or chop saws getting shoved around. Surfaces run the gamut from CCA and Trex to ipé and mahogany. I’m thinking burlap. It dries very quickly so moisture won’t get trapped underneath. It’s not slippery like poly & should be durable enough to last at least two jobs. Painter’s tarps would be good but they’ll get stolen the same day. Any words of wisdom out there?
Tks,
Al
Replies
Generally, we'll use plywood or OSB, either full pieces or large scraps left over from previous work. Often we'll leave the deck planks off, and just floor it temporarily with plywood.
Depends on the timing, how big the deck is, etc. and what you need to do. I think burlap would soak up too much water? and any fabric or canvas or tarp won't protect against dings from dropped tools, ladders, etc. but I guess you could just work carefully and maybe tarp the whole deck and just move plywood around as you go.
In the winter, it's a real problem. Tarps end up getting icy and hazardous.
Thanks for the response. I'm concerned about using panels because of trapping moisture between the decking & the panel. Our spring & summer here get hot & humid, so mold could easily grow under panels. Although burlap would saturate in rain, it would also dry very fast.
Al
Al
I agree with MD......I always use plywood. Just remove it at the end of the day or two .
I specifically have several boards of luon I use.
When I did the entry in my last house (website below) I put several boards of luon duct taped together on top of the limestone/granite job I did before I painted and railing work. Worked awesome. You can see in the my website where I'm lifting up a sheet of luon to show the floor I did.
Luon is perfect...its light and durable and cheap.
Be floored
Namaste
andy
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Al,
You'll have to deal with it in a compromise situation. You could plywood it and remove as Andy suggested, which I think maybe I'd just make a judgement before I left for the evening if it seemed like it would rain or not, but I think I'd just plywood it and if it rained, then pull it up to dry out the sheets. But one method or another, doesn't sound like it will solve all your issues.
Ipe is plenty hard. If you just take care to protect ladder feet, you should be okay. If you drop something it will damage one or two planks, and you can unscrew them, replace or turn over and refinish. Not a big deal, maybe a lot easier than spending time and making plywood and tarps worse for wear.
Trex scratches by looking at it, and you'll scratch it through burlap, no problem. I would advise any client that it will have small surface scratches by the time the job is done. The other thing it does is changes color really fast. If you tarp or plywood part of it, put siding or soffits, paint or whatever else you're doing there and it takes a few weeks, you may notice a color difference where the surface was left exposed. Again, I'd advise the clients that it will fade.