Tip of The Week

April 7, 2007

This week’s tip comes from our “Too spaced out” file.

A beautiful deck is a great feature of almost any home.  One of the things that make a deck beautiful is properly spaced deck boards.  You want the boards spaced far enough apart that they do not buckle in the heat and yet close enough that your pets and small children do not fall through the cracks.

While this seems like a relatively simple concept it can be difficult to get the final spacing of deck boards right because the boards shrink as they season.  The treatment used to preserve wood is a “water-born” treatment.  That means it is dissolved in water and then through pressure the water is forced into the wood.  All this water in the wood causes the wood to swell.  If you put the boards down with an acceptable space while the boards are still wet the gaps will be too big once the wood dries.

A simple way to get the right spacing is to use an 8-penny nail as a spacer between each board.  Just gently tap the 8-penny nail into the deck joist between boards.  Once the board is screwed into place remove the nail(s) that are spacers and start the next course of boards.

Another way to achieve the correct spacing and a very attractive finished look is to use hidden fasteners.  Both Simpson Strong Tie^TM and Teco^TM make a fastener that attaches to the joist and to the side of the deck board so that as you add each row of boards it covers the fasteners used on the previous row.  These fasteners will also provide the correct spacing.

Thanks for visiting Ask John and Dave.com and we’ll see you on the air,

John and Dave

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