Boardwalk dedication

[birchhaven]

Am I the guy below? IPE is not PT and should not be confused with IPA (that is essential in the construction of said deck)
I mean this in a very nice way, but some of the very expensive homes I have seen in CT have always made me cringe they look good but they are not well built.
If you are building a deck I would go for a natural rot proof wood like IPE, just sayin...

[jmen24]

Shore Driver, PT is nasty stuff and is not at all what I was refering to when suggesting wood decking. But you are correct, if that is really what the owner wants they can have it, but not after a quick lesson on what they are actually getting. Just as an FYI mahogany decking costs half of what trex does and has all of the same properties as composite, you do not have to apply a finish if you do not want to. Ipe costs about 20% more than Trex, so give or take a $1.00 or 2 per square foot.

Birchhaven, they don't call it "Iron Wood" for nothing. Ipe will actually throw sparks when you cut it, as it is ripping the metal off your blade. The wax end coating is what actually prevents the checking in Ipe and Mahogany, without it it will split out. In most respected builders opinions, an exotic hardwood decking, harvested from a sustainable forest enterprise is the greenest decking material on the market. But big money is paid to push composites from the manufacturers and big box retailers.

Birchhaven, next time you do an Ipe deck, request Ebty fasteners. They install using a biscuit joiner slot in the side of the deck board. No fasteners on the surface and no pre-drilling. One fastener holds two boards at each joist. Only the breadboard gets surface screwed and that should be plugged and sanded over to hide that fastener as well.

We are going to be repairing some trim on a home built in my area that cost over 500K to build 8 years ago, but because they used pre-primed finger jointed trim and did not paint the end cuts prior to installation, it is literally rotting off the house. Pulled off a 2 ft long section by hand. The price tag has nothing to do with the quality of construction. This company is still building homes in our area like gangbusters. This is not the first one we have gone back to repair from this company.

[NoBozo]

All quiet on the western front. Where are the environmentalists on this..? WOOD is a Renewable Resource. Anyone wonder where Plastic comes from..? OIL.

BTW: I have used Pressure Treated (PT) lumber on a porch and a deck. I will never use it again. It cracks, checks, splits, warps and twists. And it also splinters into slivers six inches or more in length that will really be pleasant if you happen to get one in your bare foot. I don't allow anyone to walk on my deck with bare feet because of the splinters. My deck is 22 years old and has been splintered for the past 15 at least.

Whenever I get to it I will replace the "decking" part of the deck with mahogany. Trouble is it isn't cheap and money is scarce when your retired. Maybe I should get a job. NB

[Rattlesnake Guy]

I think they old board walk was the original kind of pressure treated wood that the rail road would have used. Creosote impregnated like a railroad tie or telephone poles. Doesn't last forever but it last a couple generations. I don't think we want to know the environmental impact.

[fatlazyless]

Refinishinging an old pressure treated lumber deck is a good do-it-yourself type of a job using boiled linseed oil, paint thinner, grey alkyd primer, and alkyd grey deck paint. What's nice about the redone appearance is that the weathered and worn lumber shows through the new paint so you end up with a pretty good look'n redone deck. Suggest you go with that famous color, battleship grey, and it will turn around an ugly old brown pt lumber deck...&... anchors away...

If the old deck is not too badly dried out, then skip the linseed oil/thinner application and just go with oil primer and oil deck paint. ...just forgetabout use'n latex!

Creasote stain & preservative was outlawed sometime around 1970, so's 40 years later, any creasoted decks still in existence could be redone similar to pressure treated cac, chromium-arsenic-copper, lumber.

[jmen24]

Originally Posted by fatlazyless

Refinishinging an old pressure treated lumber deck is a good do-it-yourself type of a job using boiled linseed oil, paint thinner, grey alkyd primer, and alkyd grey deck paint. What's nice about the redone appearance is that the weathered and worn lumber shows through the new paint so you end up with a pretty good look'n redone deck. Suggest you go with that famous color, battleship grey, and it will turn around an ugly old brown pt lumber deck...&... anchors away...

If the old deck is not too badly dried out, then skip the linseed oil/thinner application and just go with oil primer and oil deck paint. ...just forgetabout use'n latex!

Creasote stain & preservative was outlawed sometime around 1970, so's 40 years later, any creasoted decks still in existence could be redone similar to pressure treated cac, chromium-arsenic-copper, lumber.

Speaking of outlawed,
Less when was the last time you tried to buy oil based paint at any dealer or retail store. Short of the LoVoc stains from Minwax (that do not match the old colors of Minwax, for anyone thinking of touching up or matching some trim that is older than 4 years) and Cabot, oil based paint, stain and urethane is not to be purchased, sold or have sent to you (ordered online) in the State of NH.

I have a guy that does midnight bootleg runs into Vermont or Mass if you need some of the good stuff!!!!

[fatlazyless]

Wal-Mart Plymouth still sells gallons of black, white, & grey Rustoleum gloss oil paint for about $26.00/gal. I betcha you could find left-over gallons of oil paint without too much trouble simply by asking around at local stores. Oil paint has a shelf life of maybe twenty years, as long as the lid is tight and it's kept from freez'n.

...hey...from 1919-1930...alcohol was outlawed too...but did that keep people from using their favorite form of alcohol.....ya know...adding the correct amount of alcohol to a paint job always seems to produce a higher quality paint job....why is that?

[jmen24]

Originally Posted by fatlazyless

Wal-Mart Plymouth still sells gallons of black, white, & grey Rustoleum gloss oil paint for about $26.00/gal. I betcha you could find left-over gallons of oil paint without too much trouble simply by asking around at local stores. Oil paint has a shelf life of maybe twenty years, as long as the lid is tight and it's kept from freez'n.

...hey...from 1919-1930...alcohol was outlawed too...but did that keep people from using their favorite form of alcohol.....ya know...adding the correct amount of alcohol to a paint job always seems to produce a higher quality paint job....why is that?

That was true 2 years ago when the ban took affect, betcha didn't know it even happened. Also check the label, it is either LoVoc (which uses a linseed oil or soy based oil) or water cleanup oil based. Take a long think on that one, when was the last time you used water to clean a brush used for oil paint. That is for the oil paint.

You are still able to get certain oil or Alkyd paint for metal, but FLL are you really using that stuff to paint the deck....

I will agree with the alcohol added to a paint job, mostly because I absolutely hate to paint and that is the only way I can get through it. It only looks better when it is finished that day, the next day provides a different view of the results.





Anyway, here is to hoping that the boardwalk holds to the hill for many more years to come. May even increase foot traffic from folks coming down to see how it came out.

[Scott]

Who ever would have thought that storm that ruined the boardwalk would be the best thing to ever happen to it?

The new boardwalk is fantastic.

It appears they're not going to replant trees down the length of it, which is a bummer. A nice row of red maples would have been nice. The garden that runs almost the whole length is a great replacement though. I sure hope someone waters those plants soon, because many of them were wilted and close to death this morning, and there's no rain coming in time to save them.

[Shore Driver]

OT: Was the Weirs waterslide open this weekend?