Thread: Splitting tallowwood decking

Some photos may help those wiser than i

BTW welcome to the forum.

Cheers

seasoned for 9 months... It's not a baby, It's worse... it's hardwood. a year minumum air dried.
It was too wet. and will cup and distort in the Sun as one sun dries more then the other.

The splitting... I'm uessing that when you nail them they are splitting to the end... The nailing usually causes this and you can pre drill to reduce it happening.

Pics will help.

Thanks for the reply...hope the attached picture gives an idea of the problem. In the upper part you can see one board has completely twisted free of the fixing while in the middle other boards can be seen buckling and twisting and the gaps between boards are becoming wider as the timber shrinks and warps.

It looks like it was not seasoned before being moulded & then kept stacked as a pack, so now it is doing all its shrinkage movement. The bad twisting is just where the grain is not straight, so those boards will have to be replaced, where it has lifted at the joins looks like the incorrect gauge fasteners have been used & they are withdrawing from the joists or decking.
regards inter

Thanks for the comments...pretty much what I expected...poorly seasoned and improperly laid. Cheers.

Secret to having Hardwood decking behave is laying Hardwood decking heart down.
I prefer to lay in green state but shorten up on the gaps between boards as the timber will shrink during seasoning.
i'm not into concrete so I have little issue with tannin release.
I also pre nail ALL hardwood - and use a single twist drill bit for faster release of wood exiting drill bit for small holes and auger bits for the big ones.
Be careful though, single twist drill bits are easier to break than double twist.

When finishing, do not finish for at least a month.
Then oxyalyic acid and coat with good system.
People these days however expect to walk on them while you still packing up the tools.