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I will be building a covered porch. Need info on T&G flooring. Have been told to use Fir, no underlayment, seal? all sides before installing. Any suggestions?
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Bob,
All good suggestions. I would add: pitch the floor at least 1/8" per foot away from the house; install the flooring perpendicular to the wall of the house, or if it's free standing run it the shortest distance; two coats of a good porch and floor enamel. Have fun.
Red dog
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Seal all sides and cuts. If staining, stain tongue. Run length in direction of fall of porch, usually perpendicular to house. I wouldn't underlay it. Seal and cap exposed end flush with deck top. Hold post finish up off deck a little and caulk joint with a good urethane caulk, or leave the gap. Keep rail up of the deck. Keep on the finish so it stays sealed. Try to run bds one pc. Blind nail. Maybe use a vapor barrier on the ground. Best of luck
*Prime back, tongue, groove, and ends before installing. Most "deck" paint is made to be used without a primer so don't prime the top surface. Keep posts, masonry, or any area where water could be trapped (or would just stay wet) away from floor. That means posts should be spaced over deck, not resting on it. Definately pitch so that water runs off. As your building just keep thinking "how is rainwater going to get out of here?"
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Bob,
I installed a t&g fir floor on my porch about 6 years ago. I followed most of the sugestions given in the other posts although I didn't paint the undersides of the boards. Last summer I noticed that several ends of boards closest to the edge of the porch had begun to rot. Painting of the undersides probably would have delayed the deterioration but I'm still surprised how quickly the fir rotted out. Next summer, I think that I'll replace the damaged boards with treated material.
*Bob,Just finished my porch this past summer. I used pre-primed tongue-groove 1x4 Doug fir from Palco. Think I paid $.75/lin ft. If I recall it was $.65 w/o prime-definiteley worth the slightly extra cost. All the tips listed in the previous posts are good, and ones that I all followed. I used Pratt & Lambert oil based porch and floor paint for the top coat. I sprayed one coat all sides before blind nailing and another coat on top after floor was down. One thing I would do differently (and will do this summer) is to repaint the floor and add some abrasive particles in the paint. Reason is during the winter months, this floor gets REAL slippery. I seem to recall reading in the Taunton Porch/Decks Book one of the authors added crushed shells to his paint for that same reason. Good Luck!
*i am building a porch out of eastern red ceder rough cut,air dried,planed.i do not want to paint or stain,but are they any materials besides polyuathane to protect the wood without changing the color? what type of screw should i use to keep from staining the wood?thanks for your help.i guess i had better let you all know that this is happening in sw mo. weather different here than la calif.fred
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Fred:
Use stainless screws. You can treat with a product like thompson's water sealer. It soaks in unlike polyurethane. It will darken the wood slightly (really slightly) but so will poly. You should treat the porch with this stuff every year or so depending on your weather.
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When installing porch floorboards at a perpindicular direction to the house (which they should be), it is common for the ends of the boards which are exposed to the weather to start to rot and give way. The endgrain of wood is the part where water is sucked up and into the wood like a long straw. One solution that I have used for years is to run a piece (or two) parrallel to the house and perpindicular to the run of the floor so the endgrain is not exposed to the elements as much. Squeeze in a bead of a high quality silicone or sealent between the edge of the outer piece and the endgrain of your floorboards. This may not totally prevent rot but it will prolong the life of the wood. It also makes an attractive delineation. Be sure to miter the ends into the floorboards on either side of the porch. Always seal all floorboards on the ends and back as well.
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A little off topic but has anyone tried or considered dipping ends in a consolidant - like the minwax or abatron products - as a preventitive? I'm considering it for the bottom end of wood ballusters on an open porch railing (along with plastic dowels or stainless steel fasteners). Perhaps the exposed ends pf teh porch floor could be saturated with this stuff.
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About consolidants- I was thinking the same thing. Abatron and Minwax products are pretty expensive, for what you get. Try the West System epoxies, often available at boating supply stores. It's very versatile stuff, and really soaks in if the wood is warm. I attended a workshop on this material last summer, and we were told that for extra penetration you can use a heat gun to warm up the wood (not hot) and as it cools it will draw the epoxy in. Using various additives, we were able to salvage thoroughly rotted pieces. Sealing end grain is a natural application for this material.
*B.J. I used the technique which you describe when installing my porch floor boards. The outer board which runs parrallel to the house has not rotted but a number of the boards running perpendicular have failed (that is, portions of boards closest to the edge of the porch). I did not use silicon where the two directions meet but I'm not sure that would have prolonged the life of the floor all that much. I've used fir with good results for vertical exterior applications but I'm just not sure I would use it again for horizontal applications like a floor. Fir might work better in other parts of the country but here in the upper mid-west where snow regularly sits and melts on the floor it just does'nt seem to hold up very well.
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I will be building a covered porch. Need info on T&G flooring. Have been told to use Fir, no underlayment, seal? all sides before installing. Any suggestions?