-North Central Texas
-New house starting construction early next year.
-Large front ‘porch’ facing north.
-House roof covers porch – probably an 18 inch overhang over the edge of porch.
-The ‘floor’ of the porch will vary between 1 foot and 5 foot above grade due to the slope of the lot.
Low maintenance, reasonable life and cost are the priorities.
Do I go with an IPE deck surface, composite deck surface, or what? I am leaning away from the painted fir floor due to the maintenance required.
Would some type of cement surface be a reasonable answer? If so, what kind should I specify and how expensive is it compared to an IPE deck?
The columns supporting the porch roof will be a craftsman style, probably a steel column, rock surface up to the railing and hardiplank tapered from there up.
Edited 12/8/2006 9:41 pm ET by paul42
Replies
Check out Tendura. It's a composite T & G flooring that I like a lot.
I think it's about $2 a foot, but it will last a long time.
That is an ideal location for Tendura. Ipe` fine there too.
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How much weather exposure is too much for Tendura, IYHO?
(Buffalo, roof but no real overhang)
It can handle the moisture, but they caution against using it wheere sun heats it up . The thermal expansion is noticeable, so they require that it be under a roof. So this with a north face and rof over it would be stable. And the classic southern porch style is for the T&G painted deck. The tendura has colour through it so no paining needed but it can be painted
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>> And the classic southern porch style is for the T&G painted deck. << Wouldn't that be the classic northern style too? Don't know - just asking... Also would you say the classic porch style is for the T&G painted boards to run perdicular to the house wall?
And, how often does ipe need to be re-oiled? Not trying to hijack - just trying to learn something here.
definitely perpendicular.
up north more common to noy use T&G but square stock spaced.Ipe` will not rot oiled or not, but there are other forms of degradation. Water can enter small checks, freeze, and open them wider, so oil helps prevent tht and keeps the wood looking better. but Ipe is so hard, oil does not penetrate it well. That means that it needs to be re-done every year or two
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Just a few thoughts about the columns:
>> The columns supporting the porch roof will be a craftsman style, probably a steel column, rock surface up to the railing and hardiplank tapered from there up. <<
>> hardiplank tapered from there up. << that is a little hard for me to picture how it would actually be executed. Would you use Hardi plank corner boards with inset panels of Hardi material or what?
I'm buildings some houses with craftsman style columns right now. Most often craftsman columns are maybe 16" x 16" at the base or larger. What this means is that the vertical relationship between the porch roof beam and the outboard edge of the porch have to be offset to accommodate the relatively large diameter columns. This is a common mistake on plans so check your plan set. A related thought is that a classic craftsman look is for the large column element to be carried down through the porch foundation to the footers. A little hard to explain, but take a look at this pic.
http://www.bungalowcompany.com/Database/database.app.php?event=detail&id=16&config=portfolio&PHPSESSID=8538h498mu7aq55ola4q4jplb2
Not the best looking house (to my eye) but it illustrates my point.
I'm giving you this stuff because it sounds like you are still, at least somewhat, in the plans stage.