Hi Guys, recently there was a debate in this forum about spacing between deck boards and if they swell very much or not.

Well this morning I went out to my deck to enjoy an early morning coffee and I noticed that the gaps on my deck had closed up again.

I thought it might be helpful for everyone to see just how much pine boards can move around.
So here is the background: The deck lives in Central Queensland. The boards are 90x22 CCA pine boards laid in 4+ metre lengths. They are nailed to fully seasoned hardwood joists using 65mm twisted shank gal nails that were all predrilled using a steel jig I made that allowed me to keep the spacing of the nails correct but also the spacing of the boards themselves. The gap was 5mm between the boards when I put them down just under 12 months ago.
The deck itself had just endured a cyclone season with many wet days and even more hot dry days in between.

BTW the finish is 3 coats of Spa&Deck in the merbau tint.

As you can hopefully see in one picture the gap has closed quite a bit, while the other is just about 5 mm. The boards with the larger gap are under the eves of the house and normally don't get direct rain and little direct sunlight.
on the other hand the boards that have closed up do get direct rain and a lot of sun. You can see quite a lot of surface splits in the pine deck. from what I can gather this is what pine will do. To my mind not an unattractive appearance. I don't want a polished floor for deck and anyone who does is in of a world of pain and anguish.

The gaps between the boards will open up again as the deck dries out.

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