pine decking

[dzcook]

Am putting in a deck on a hse that will be a rental when ( if ) it is ever finished is really a verandah i suppose as its covered completely and am thinking of use pine decking boards as they will be just painted anyway ?

Can anyone tell me any pitfalls or things that i will need to watch for ? ie splitting , knots etc ??cost is a big factor can any one tell me the difference in life span between "good " boards and pine

Can i also get the screw nails for the deck to go in my nail gun ? are they the best way to fix
as always thks

[julianx]

Pine will be ok if it's under cover.
If it's a coil nailer you will be able to get nails for treated pine decking,
I don't do many decks and if I do I generally use hardwood and drill and hand nail. Pine is ok to put down with a gun, but I would pre-drill and hand nail all the ends and butt joints.

[Bleedin Thumb]

You say pine I hope you mean treated pine. I would suggest Tanalith E if you want a longer life and less hassle than LOSP ( your timber merchant will explain or do a google).
I must admit that all my experience is with CCA treated pine which you cant use anymore but I'm sure the quality issues will be the same with Tanalith E namely:-
The cheaper the price usually means more knots and wetter timber but sometimes this is OK depends on situation, budget etc.
As far as fixing you don't need to pre-drill pine.
You can use a nailgun even Paslode gas guns have deck nails and you can get a no mark tip for them. Personnally I always do them by hand using titadeck nails.

[OBBob]

I did a deck with treated pine ... it worked fine and I just stained it afterward, which I sprayed on. It was easy to nail by hand without predrilling. When the decking turned up I freaked out a bit because it was all warped ... as pine tends to do easilly, however once you get one board down straight you can just use spacers and pull all the following boards into line. I had the deck for a couple of yeard before selling the house and it hadn't deteriorated at that point.

I'd go pine any day if cost is a factor but hardwood does come up really nice if you intend to keep and use the house.