Decking timber lengths

[borismilo]

G'day,

I'm building a deck 6x5 (with about 7 sq meters taken out for stairs) and just got a delivery of deck timber from my timber merchant (358 lm). My wife (God bless her), unpacked the timber and sorted it into varying length piles. By doing that, it became obvious just how many short lengths had been put into the pack. Its ironbark and I remember reading somewhere that packs usually have some variation in length but this seems a bit excessive. I have one piece that is 790mm! Being so well sorted, it was fairly easy for me to look over all the timber to see what I have. 18% is less than 2m in length and 36% less than 2.5 meters.

This concerns me because I have looked at weathered decks and it seems that most of the deterioration happens at the ends of boards where they are joined over joists. With so much short stuff, I am going to have to do a lot of joining. Does anyone have any ideas on what is normally in a pack (this wasn't a full pack)


Boris

[mic-d]

g'day Boris,
You can tally up the linear metres excluding anything that will not span 3 joists and it should be at least what you ordered. Those small lengths are often included to make the pack more stable.
If you ordered first quality, I'd give the timber yard a ring and tell them your concerns.
When you install the deck paint the ends with the deck coating.



Cheers
Michael

[Eugowra]

Hi Boris,

That certainly sounds too many short lengths for my liking also.

In NSW hardwood decking packs from Boral and other producers usually contain around 500 lms with a length spec of 1.8 to 3.3 for most of the pack Longer lengths put in if available. Lengths under 900 are usually packers or fillers to even out the pack and are more than likely of a lower grade and unsalable.

I recomend you contact your supplier and ask the short lengths to be replaced or take your complaint further.

Wassa

[glock40sw]

G'day.
Hardwood Decking from our plant has no lengths shorter than 1.8m.

If there are shorter pieces in the pack, they are packing and are not part of the lenght tally for the pack.

There is no set average lenght for deking or flooring. AS2796.1&.2 (that covers decking and T&G flooring) does not limit lenghts. We supply 1.8 to 5.4m. Ther is always a chance the you can get a pack that is nearly all 2.1 to 3.0m with a few longer boards. A lot depends on the timber available to machine at the time of production.

[UteMad]

It pays to ask first before ordering what the lengths in the pack are like...
If you intend buying a whole pack you can ask to see the packing slip and pick your pack
You will quite often get the standard reply but its worth a try...
Different species run different amounts of shorts in there packs ..iron bark is hard to get and shorts are common... we stick with hardwoods that average 3m and up if possible as it reduces wastage and longer lengths reduce the time to map and lay... It all counts when its a job and not your own diy project where labour is free

You can try to complain but considering your buying power you prob wont get far unless they stuck it to you for full retail and have some room to move.. Because eventually someone has to get the shorts.. That said i have had a batch collected from site and replaced as i got too many shorts and knew the customer would complain..

This is my own Red Iron Bark deck... Its completely reds with no grey/green at all ... The sleepers are iron bark aswell and quite pricey but worth the effort.. It took 3 decks to sift the lengths i wanted and complete reds but its worth it in the end ....





There are 2 other hidden retaining walls under the deck to hold up the dirt for the garden and create a void to conceal the water catchment tank for the water feature....
A rather tiny deck for a deck guy Huh!!!!!!!

Cheers utemad

[borismilo]

G’day,
Thanks for the replies.
I really like the photos of the deck utmad, I tried getting red ironbark but couldn’t source any. Its been a learning experience
I sent an email off to the supplier and am going to give them a ring. I added up all the lengths within reason – I just took a bit of a guess at each of the piles being a bit on the generous side, and the LM came to 260, I ordered 258 so I think it’s probably close – that included all the small bits so I am pretty unhappy.
I should have twigged when the price dropped from 4.44 to 4.21. I asked why but the lady just said she didn’t know. I left it at that and ordered it. I was expecting a mixture of short and long lengths but not what I got.
Hopefully it will get settled. If not, I hope I have enough timber to get me through. I calculated the amount for the full 5x6 deck even though I have 7sq meters set aside for stairs. I figured the 7sq would be a good figure for wastage.
Thanks for the advice. I will give them a ring as well as the email. At worse, I will have another gem of knowledge for the next time.

Cheers,
Boris

[UteMad]

Thats still a great price for grey iron bark if its 90mm wide.... what state are you in ?? You can't get red iron bark in sydney anymore its all called grey ironbark which allows them to put the grey/green boards in aswell.. the only way mine is totally red was to sift the packs of the 3 decks ... i still have 6 or so full reds 5.4 long in the shed from memory ..... maybe they will fetch me a fortune in a few years.... that deck of mine is full length everywhere all bar 1 board on the very front which was 100mm short forcing me to cut 900 off so as not to have a join in the stairs....

hope your deck goes well ...budget on 10% waste if you know you can easily get more if needed as to wait a day or so costs you nothing but your time


cheers utemad

[borismilo]

G'day Utemad, I'm in Queensland but price is not really a big consideration - I say that only because I was fortunate enough to go and get a quote from three different builders to get the deck professionally built. The quotes ranged from 28,500 to 35,000. I have spent around $7000 on materials, council, owner builders hoop jumping and have yet to do the roof and handrails - I can't spell balustrades so I avoid writing it ;-). It means when ever I buy anything now, its a bargain (I keep the quotes in mind). Amazing how liberating it is to know you are saving money, like in the commercials! I want to use good quality materials so I used select grade hardwood (mainly iron bark from what I was told) in the substructure and went for iron bark decking because it is durability class 1, white ants bend their little teeth on it and the deck is going to be partially exposed.

On the plus side (along with the money saving), I've really enjoyed the building although it is bloody hard work. I have even resented my normal paid work interrupting my building! There is also the side benefit of satisfying deep seated male yearning to buy tools - automatic justification - deck, saving, I can buy that $8000 laser level ... not quite but liberating all the same.

Anyway, I am not real happy about the amount of short pieces I have got. Never having bought decking before, I wasn't really sure on what to expect. I did read somewhere that you get a mixture of long and short but I was surprised by the amount of short timber I got. Like I said, I will talk to my supplier. They may well say, yeah pal, that's why it was such a good price - which is no consolation to me since I was prepared to pay more if what I was getting was good.

Anyway, If it doesn't turn up good, I can always pursue my home brewing interests more fervently and see where that takes me.

Cheers,
Boris.

[glock40sw]

G'day.
The reason it is hard to find RIBK decking is because we can get more $ for it as T&G flooring. Decking price is too low for this specie.
Our decking species are GIBK, TWD & SG.

[Fatwood]

What are the dimensions of this decking ?