tallowwood deck

[ellie02@bigpond]

hi there,im a novice when it comes to working with wood,prefer steel which is what the frame underneath is.i need some advice on laying the tallowwood boards ie striaghtning warped boards,best places for joines(fair few short boards),keeping screws nice & strait in line,should i oil ends,sides & underneath as im going or just oil where board lays on steel joist as well as ends.also heard i should let deck weather for 12 weeks before oiling(boards are kiln dried).any do"s & donts would be appriciated.thank you

[glock40sw]

G'day.
Oil ends before fixing.
Gap the boards with 3" nails.
Use a cramp or chisel to pull the sprung boards over against the gap nails before fixing.
to keep the nail line straight, use a square from the previous boards nails.
If you let it weather for 12 weeks, the timber will start to grey out.
Oil as soon as it is fixed with 2 coats Feast Watson Deck oil.
Then again a month later with another 2 coats.
Then as needed.

[journeyman Mick]

Trevor,
he's laying on steel joists, so I reckon he's going to have a bit of trouble driving in those 3" spacer nails and the face nails.:rolleyes: :p I'd be looking at using decklocks - a small metal bracket that you can TEK screw to the side of the joist and which has spikes which are driven into the edge of the board. Gives a very good finish and should make the decking last a long time as it's lifted off the joist by about 1mm or so. The only drawback is that it's a very slow process, probably takes 2 - 3 times as long as usual.

Mick

[glock40sw]

G'day Mick.
Slap me will ya, Please. :o
I didn't see that about the steel joists while speed reading the post.

Decklocks are the way to go.
My BIL used them on his place in Ashmore with great success.

[Carpenter]

Its worth the effort to set out the board spacing, this way you can usually avoid ripping a board at the wall because there's not enough space for a full one. Having said that, if you use the deck lock thingy's the space is set. I've not used them, but the concept has a few holes in it for me. Another option is to screw them with stainless screws, it takes a bit longer but is a very good fixing, & it looks good as well. As far as getting the fixing lines straight, mark a line down the centre of the steel joists with a permanant marking pen, then use the square each time using the line as a reference, & you won't compound the error if the last board is a bit out.

[Ragin]

I just went through all this :)

OK I ended up Bolting my C Section Frame together with large bolts/Washers / I used Sikaflex Glue on all bolts. I also Painted the Metal Frame with Bitchamen Paint to weather proof it. It also pays to put a few holes in the C Section in case any water finds its way into the C Sections.

I used Steel Brackets Dyna Bolted into the Concrete around the house to fix to the Joists. As far as fixing the Decking wood to the Joists, I used Sikaflex Glue and Galvanised Screws. The ones that screw into metal and self countersink into the wood. I ended up using 1700 of these and for a 7mx7m area it took me and a mate around 4 days.

The wood I used was 140mmx25mm Cedar so it was pretty strong, received many Bannana shaped planks. I was using 3mm Gab tile spaces to get an even line, many of them required one person to push them into place with their legs while the other quickly pre drilled and screwed it in. Messy stuff :D