I have about 32m2 (roughly 8*4) of deckingto complete. It is all under cover and i orginially planned on using 90*19 so the joists are 140*45 Pine @ 450mm centres. Want to get away from the thinner 90mm boards and i am currently considering some spotted gum decking (140*32). The board quoted as 140*32 GOS F17 SEL DAR after treatment @ $8.95 per m.

The decking has not been Kiln dried but is available in fixed lengths (2.4m - 6m) The local hardwood supplier recommends butting the boards against eachother to allow for shrinking. They use it mainly for commercial decking jobs.

If i go ahead with this option, i can put the boards in with a single join on each run and was planning to align the joins every second run. This way i would end up with two lines of joins and was going to put in another joist 100mm offset to fix the boards down to a separate joist. I doubt i could fix 4 batten screws to a 45mm joist without splitting the ends of the board. Does that make sense?


Positives:
Impressive size of boards
Use of batten screws to fix to joists
Fixed lengths

Negatives:
Unkown about the use of non-KD timber

Questions:
What does GOS mean?
Does the timber shrink along it length or just the width?

Your thoughts and recommendations would be appreciated.


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