Types of Wood Decking

Types of wood decking

Decks are exposed to everyday activities and traffic, such as pets, kids, walking, heavy objects and weather, therefore they have to have durability and be sturdy. When correctly installed, decks will not only improve the appearance of your house, but also increase its value. When having your deck built for your home or business, you should take into account the many types of wood decking to make sure that your deck will not only be aesthetically pleasing, but also be capable of withstanding the stress of use. Decking woods are available as follows:

Pressure-treated wood

These types of wood are the most common because of their cheapness, appearance and strength; also, are easy to be worked with and can be found in many places. There’s a big chance that even if you picked another material for the deck itself, pressure-treated wood will still be used on the structural support of the deck, because all other options fall short when it comes to strength-cost feasibility. Southern yellow-pine is the most common wood used for decking. Being widely sold everywhere, it’s declining in the race with other types of wood, mainly because it requires high maintenance in order to preserve its state and can be time consuming.

Southern yellow-pine is the most renowned of pressure-treated woods through the simple fact that it can be treated with efficient penetration without having to incise the wood. The incising process involves making small cuts on the exterior of the wood so as to allow the preservative to be absorbed deeply into the covers of the wood.

Native wood

The term indicates that it is harvested anywhere in North America. The most commonly picked wood when building a deck is cedar. Cedar wood is a softwood in that it is of a coniferous species; this does not necessarily indicate how soft or hard the wood is, or reflect its durability, but merely that being taken from an evergreen species, it is assigned to being a softwood.

Being rich in color, texture and grain, cedar provides great durability, stability and reliability. It will not curve and prove to be a great base for paint and other coatings. More so, fasteners will hold better in comparison with other woods.

Tropical wood

Tropical wood is found anywhere but in North America. Ipe and camaru are included in the tropical wood family, and are usually picked because they are very similar to teak, which is hardly ever used in decking due to its high cost.

Ipe is also referred to as Brazilian walnut. Mainly having a dark brown texture with some patches of light stripes, ipe is extremely dense and solid, and not lacking in a good texture. Being so hard and dense, it encounters some difficulties when cutting, which also makes installing this hardwood more laborious. Its high durability can last you from 25 up to 40 years time. If you don’t wish to apply a sealant to your hardwood, this will pale into a grayish color with minimal splintering. Tropical hardwood is generally imported from Central America and Brazil.

Camaru, very much like ipe, is a hardwood, but imported from South America; however they differ in color, whilst camaru is orange-brown in color, if left untreated it will also turn silver with age.

The type of decking you go for should be based on the preferences of how much work and money you’re willing to invest into maintaining a hardwood deck in the long term. What budget limit you have when first purchasing a hardwood deck should give you an idea of whether or not you will be able to care for it when the time comes.