Thread: Unseasoned hardwood for deck

I'd be concerned more with movement as it seasons mongrelling the look of your boards, moreso than getting it all level at construction.... there was some talk of unseasoned timber in the decking area of the renovate forums recently I think....

It will depend on how accurate the timber is, as to the need to size. Within reason is fine. Only when joists are placed on top of bearers does even joist depth become important. In your case , all you need to do is keep your top faces of everything level. Rather than setting the stirrups first, fit them to the bearers and suspend over the footing holes. Level the top of the bearers and then pour the footings. This way, if there is any variance in bearer thickness it is accounted for by stirrup height.
Regarding stirrups, sandwitching two thicknesses of timber will only cause rot. Why not use L stirrups instead? Timber size is then not critical, as the open side of the bracket allows for any timber variance.
As all the timber is green and of same specie, shrinkage should be even and not cause any unsightly "mongrelling."

Thanks Rustynail - some good tips. I was thinking of using the cyclone type stirrups though. The L type would work weel but are limited in height. Thi

If I use wood glue on the two surfaces of the mating 50mm thick bearers, would that suffice against rot?

I thought this was going to be a low level deck. How long do the stirrups need to be? Another way to raise the stirrups would be to bring your footings up out of the ground enough to suit the short leg on the L bracket. Aint life technical.

If the stirrups are too short, what about short posts? As far as glueing the pieces of wood together to stop rot, no it won't work. I have mated beams together in the past with large gal square washers between them to give an air space (fun getting them line up with the bolt holes). If you paint the mating surfaces with a good oil paint and then run sikaflex along the top of the seam once installed that'll do too. I wouldn't seal all round, just top and maybe sides, moisture has a habit of finding a way in and if you seal it completely it may actually rot faster.

Oh, and you can get beasts called deck joists which are dressed on both edges and very straight. It saves the time of setting all the joists bow up and then planing all to flat once installed, though that is ok too, just longer.