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We have had about 10 days of rain since screwing down 1×6 ironwood decking to an engineered ACZA multilevel deck. The ironwood (or ironbark) decking, which my customer imported from Australia, expanded so much that the 1/8″ spacing disappeared and the newly installed railing posts tipped out of plumb by as much as 1 inch in three feet and three cantilevered areas were pushed down (out of level) on the ends by as much as 7/8″ in 6 feet by the expanding decking on top. We removed one out of every three decking boards after taking out the screws and sledge hammering the boards out from the underside. About one third of the screws had sheared off at the top of the joists. Relieved of the pressure, the cantilevered areas bounced back to their earlier levels and some of the posts are closer to plumb, but need work. We are considering removing most of the decking (not all of it because we have staircases and walls on top of the decking) and ripping the decking down and sanding the edges before re-fastening the decking. Obviously, we did not allow enough gap between the boards and we face an expensive repair. The boards expanded from about 5 3/16″ to over 5 3/8″. Has anyone had experience with Australian Ironbark decking? Do other hardwoods expand this much when wet?
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We have had about 10 days of rain since screwing down 1x6 ironwood decking to an engineered ACZA multilevel deck. The ironwood (or ironbark) decking, which my customer imported from Australia, expanded so much that the 1/8" spacing disappeared and the newly installed railing posts tipped out of plumb by as much as 1 inch in three feet and three cantilevered areas were pushed down (out of level) on the ends by as much as 7/8" in 6 feet by the expanding decking on top. We removed one out of every three decking boards after taking out the screws and sledge hammering the boards out from the underside. About one third of the screws had sheared off at the top of the joists. Relieved of the pressure, the cantilevered areas bounced back to their earlier levels and some of the posts are closer to plumb, but need work. We are considering removing most of the decking (not all of it because we have staircases and walls on top of the decking) and ripping the decking down and sanding the edges before re-fastening the decking. Obviously, we did not allow enough gap between the boards and we face an expensive repair. The boards expanded from about 5 3/16" to over 5 3/8". Has anyone had experience with Australian Ironbark decking? Do other hardwoods expand this much when wet?