I have a set of front steps I am building, 6″ rise, 12″ run, totally exposed to weather. I am trying to use hardwood decking; bangkirai is what it’s called locally. Meranti is another name. I believe the species is shorea laevus.
I have encountered a series of issues and need some outside brainpower.
First is a question of spacing. I understand meranti can move quite a bit and I am using deckmaster hidden fasteners. Problem is on a 12″ tread, I have to rip each piece in order to get the suggested 1/8 spacing. On the last board I am trying to give the appearance of nosing by allowing the last board to overhang the riser by 12 inch. In many cases this leaves me with only two or three screws in the last board. I have tried to minimize this weakness by securing the last deck board to the riser with gorilla glue and now epoxy.
I have no experience to back this up but my gut tells me this last board is going to walk around and then fail. I am needlessly paranoid or do I need to face screw the last board?
Second question. I set up a test tread yesterday with boards that had been finished with penofin, the marine oil blend. There was a light sprinkle and several scraps of unfinished wood were lying out alongside the finished boards. All of them developed a mottled black stain. See photos. I suspect that these are tannins leaching out but its odd that both the finished and unfinished boards have the same stains. The rep says I needed to wash the boards before staining. I sanded them lightly but never considered washing them was standard practice. Any help greatly appreciated.
Pic in next post. Thanks Rez, I forgot to reduce file size.
Edited 5/22/2006 11:25 pm ET by 17dave
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