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Hi,
I’m having the front porch rebuilt on my 1905 farmhouse in Seattle, due to rot and poor original construction. It’s a porch that fits into the house, under the second floor, and over the basement, rather than sticking out in front if the house. Although is is under a roof, it is open to the south side, where it gets the brunt of the weather, both sun and rain.
The original deck on the porch was T&G fir, and it was in pretty good shape, except for the front edge, which was rotted out. My contrtactor is concerned that wood is not a good surface for something that needs to be walked on, and is essentially acting as a roof as well. He suggests replacing it with tile, or a paint-on membrane designed for outdoor floors.
While tile would look nice, I don’t think it really fits in very well with the character of an otherwise all wood house. As for the membrane option, it looks entirely too industrial for us.
If we did go with replacing the deck with T&G fir, there are two problems. 1) it’s expensive! 2) The only finish that my contractor recommends is a deck paint, and it seems a shame to cover up the nice wood that we just paid so much money for (see 1). He also feels that even though deck paint would work, it would require a fair bit of maintainance in the future.
My questions are:
If I’m going to paint it anyway, are there cheaper materials that would work just as well? In keeping with the house, I do wnat to see the lines of the individual planks.
Is there a clear finish that would adequately seal the deck, and stand up to both foot traffic and the weather, both sun and rain?
What other options are there?
NOTE: As I look around, I see that most older houses have wood floors on their porches, is it really such a bad idea? This one lasted 95 years, I’d be satisfied with that lifespan.
-thanks, Chris
Replies
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Chris,
We just re-did a porch. Put down 5oo SF of clear White Oak. We brushed on 3 coats of Helmsman marine spar urethane. We will give it a couple more before the summer is over. This finish is soft and flexible enough to stretch and shrink with the sun and the rain, yet hard enough to take foot traffic and wooden furniture. So far so good.
*I've been refinishing decks here in Canada for years and whenever possible use a clear finish. Spar urethane, recoated every 2 1/2 years is the norm. Starting with 3 coats, the first primer coat should be diluted with 15% varsol to soak into the deck put the next coat on with 5% varsol and the last full strength and generous (flood on coats 2&3) make sure their is lots of drying time to avoid alligatoring, sand between coats lightly. A stain of three parts Minwax puritan pine and one part ipswich pine makes a beautiful heritage color, test a scrap till you get it right. The underside of your deck material should be primed if you want good results to stop the damp and dryness from affecting the flooring. Flash the connection to the house walls and under the lip of the porch floor to stop water from invading the frame of the house. Also form a kerf under the front edge of the flooring material to act as a dripedge. Recoat the floor within 3 months of wear beginning to show to stop discoloration. Sikkens finishes are also excellent to keep the beauty of your floor up and you can purchase these with coloration, cedar works well.Maintenance, if you get snow, make sure you broom off the deck before it starts to get wet and make sure their is slope built into the deck for drainage. Your farmhouse should have a T&G deck historically and I suggest you stay with that material for aesthetic reasons. White oak stands up to weather well but red pine with it's increased resins works well up north, yellow should also work well and they avoid indentation by foot traffic better than softer pines. Make sure your wood has finished drying first or you will have large seams where you had laid it tight. Keep the historical elements alive.Cheers from a Canadian historical renovation/paint Contractor
*Your comments regarding porch finishes was very helpful, I'd like to ask you opinion on additional flooring materials. Here in New Jersey it seems that porches are floored with either vertical-grain T&G fir or T&G mahogony. Do you have an opinion or preference? Would you use something else altogether?
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Chris - If you paint, prime all surfaces first (buttprime) along with any cut ends.
Jeff
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Tim,
We don't have access to either fir or mahogany decking here. The Mahogany should stand up the best against rot. Any material will last if coated properly and if that coating is maintained. Each of the materials discussed have different amounts of resins or salts (mahogany, I believe) that make them less susceptible to rot or capillary reaction to moisture (swelling). The other factor to gauge is hardness to avoid indentation in areas of use.
Good Luck
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Last time I shopped for cvg fir flooring, Olsen Lumber on Aurora had the best price. Blackstock and Limback were 25% higher.
Clive, I'll show my ignorance, but would a pre-primer of CCA before prime/paint be bad?
*You may want to look over an "Ask the Builder" column on sealing decks. The author is pushing his own deck cleaner, and I could not find any information on the internet about the analytical lab whose results he gives, but he makes some good points on deck finishes.http://www.askthebuilder.com/cgi-bin/bulletin?180:00175
*Sikkens products are expensive but worth every penny. Had the same problem on a deck that was constantly exposed to the weather. I sloped the deck so it dropped one-quarter inch per foot. We are talking ran, snow, and ice that was rotting the wood prematurely. When the homeowner will not do proper maintenance on a home you have to do what you have to do.
*Whoops, forget to double check my link. Looks like I need to do a full HTML link reference instead of my usual shortcut... Ask The Builder on Deck Finishes
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Hi,
I'm having the front porch rebuilt on my 1905 farmhouse in Seattle, due to rot and poor original construction. It's a porch that fits into the house, under the second floor, and over the basement, rather than sticking out in front if the house. Although is is under a roof, it is open to the south side, where it gets the brunt of the weather, both sun and rain.
The original deck on the porch was T&G fir, and it was in pretty good shape, except for the front edge, which was rotted out. My contrtactor is concerned that wood is not a good surface for something that needs to be walked on, and is essentially acting as a roof as well. He suggests replacing it with tile, or a paint-on membrane designed for outdoor floors.
While tile would look nice, I don't think it really fits in very well with the character of an otherwise all wood house. As for the membrane option, it looks entirely too industrial for us.
If we did go with replacing the deck with T&G fir, there are two problems. 1) it's expensive! 2) The only finish that my contractor recommends is a deck paint, and it seems a shame to cover up the nice wood that we just paid so much money for (see 1). He also feels that even though deck paint would work, it would require a fair bit of maintainance in the future.
My questions are:
If I'm going to paint it anyway, are there cheaper materials that would work just as well? In keeping with the house, I do wnat to see the lines of the individual planks.
Is there a clear finish that would adequately seal the deck, and stand up to both foot traffic and the weather, both sun and rain?
What other options are there?
NOTE: As I look around, I see that most older houses have wood floors on their porches, is it really such a bad idea? This one lasted 95 years, I'd be satisfied with that lifespan.
-thanks, Chris