The 5/4 vs 4/4 Decking Debate

I am frequently asked if 5/4 is better than 4/4 for Brazilian Hardwood Decking

 

There are two thoughts on 5/4 vs. 4/4 decking boards and it seems to depend upon where you live.  It is almost like a cultural influence.  For example, if you live in South Carolina 5/4 seems to be the standard.  In the Georgia - Florida area 4/4 is what people want.   When I started asking for reasons, no one seemed to have any as to why they used 5/4 vs. 4/4 or vice versa.  Everyone had their opinions but no one had anything definitive.

 

To best answer everyone, I can share my personal experience with Cumaru.  I did similar research as you are doing as I built my dock prior to selling Brazilian wood.  (Actually, I loved the product and that is how I got involved with selling decking).    I found very few people sold Cumaru, Jatoba, and Tigerwood.  Most retailers sell Ipé as their only choice in Brazilian decking.   Ipé is a very colorful wood but liked the soft brown hues of Cumaru.   After deciding upon my decking wood, then the choice was 4/4 vs. 5/4.  I found that some people swore by 5/4 and others swore by 4/4.  I finally let the hardness of the wood decide for me.  The Janka scale of hardness tells you how hard wood is.  It is complex for me so I just used the scale to compare woods that I knew to the Cumaru.    http://bwdepot.com/Pages%20Document/janka.htm   That showed me that Cumaru is several times harder than Oak or Hickory.  I know that Oak and Hickory are very hard and decided that with so much 4/4 sold it must be fine for my application.  From there I used 4/4 x6 for my dock with 16" centers for the joists.   The outcome is my dock is solid, just like walking on the ground.    I am very pleased with the result.

 

I know that is a long answer to a short question.   But the real answer seems to be personal preference and cost.  Because of my experience I only sell the 4/4 because I feel the 5/4 is overkill and a waste of money.  It is also not as environmental friendly as you can make more 4/4 boards than 5/4 from a tree.  Now if you decide upon Ipé, it is even harder than the Cumaru.   So the answer of 4/4 over the 5/4 becomes even more valid.  To summarize, 4/4 Brazilian Hardwood Decking is ample for most if not all applications.

Router on Brazilian Hardwoods

The question this week was about using a router on the edge of Ipé.   Specifically, our customer wants to use a router on the top railing to cut a fancy design.  I checked with the millworks guys and they confirmed using a Router is no problem at all.  They told me it is easier than Pine as the Brazilian woods are so dry they do not clog up the router bits.  I told them specifically the customer would be using a hand held router.  Again they said no problem.   While Ipé is hard, it is still easy to work with.  If you want to do some router work on Ipé, Jatoba, or any of the hardwoods we sell you should be pleased with the results.   For information on buying Brazilian Decking go to www.abswood.com

 

Cost of Brazilian Hardwood Decking

I had a customer contact me about Brazilian Hardwood. They really loved the colors, grain, and hardness. They specifically wanted Jatoba as the beautiful red color would compliment their existing home. The problem they were facing was a concern of the cost of Brazilian hardwoods. On the phone we had a discussion of the true cost of any deck or dock. What we concluded was that the decking is not the only consideration when it comes to costs. Actually, a deck has many costs at many levels. To name a few are;

• Time you are shopping for, and pricing decking
• Time to pickup the decking (or cost to have it delivered)
• Removing the original decking - do not forget disposal
• Replacing rotten or damaged joists on a rebuilt deck
• Insuring foundation is level - checking footers
• Installing the beams and hanging the joists on a new deck
• Installing the new decking
• ACQ Screws will cost you about $150 for 300 sq ft of deck
• Installing the railing posts, railings, and balusters
• Wrapping the deck

You can see from this list that the decking boards are actually just one component in the building of a deck. In addition, their is a large amount of time, either the DIY or a contractor involved. However, the most visible part of a deck is the decking. That is what your family and guests will see. Once we came to this conclusion, the customer bought his Jatoba.

Ipé Clip Extreme with pre-grooved Decking Available

I get many inquires about hidden fasteners. In the past we only supported the top drilled and screwed technology using stainless or Headcoat/Smartbit system. However, many people including deckbuilders asked us to supply hidden fasteners. To support our customers we decided to sell and support the Ipé Clip Extreme system. The Ipé Clip Extreme is a wonderful hidden fastener system that you can install from the top of the deck. Many of the older hidden fasteners had to be installed from underneath the deck. This forced you into difficult positions and greatly added to the time needed for installation. The new Ipé Clip Extreme solves these problems by keeping everything up top where you can work on it. The Ipé clip does require grooves in the decking edges as its attachment point. To fully support this new system our woodworking shop can pre-groove any of our 1x6 deck boards. You can install our Jatoba, Cumaru, Tigerwood or Ipé with the Ipé Clip Extreme. For the homeowner this adds a new dimension to look and usability to your deck. The deck builder has a new tool to provide flexibility to satisfying their customers. Check out the Ipé Clip Extreme at " http://www.abswood.com/Pages/fasteners.htm" on the www.ABSwood.com site.