TIGERWOOD – MY CHOICE FOR LUMBER

It was just common sense to use Tigerwood for our outside projects. All the lumber that I’ve purchased to build steps and decks for my home previously have rotted and splintered well before their time should have been up. Additionally, carpenter bees love to drill into it and build their homes.

You can purchase Tigerwood by the length in feet you need, so you don’t have to waste money or wood if you need a 5 foot or 7 foot board. You can buy exactly that. The edges are slightly beveled so they aren’t sharp, and both sides are finished beautifully smooth so you could walk barefoot on either surface. The initial cost is higher than you’d find at Lowes or Home Depot, but considering I’ve replaced boards three times on one of my treated lumber decks since my first Tigerwood deck was built (haven’t replaced even one board on that), it’s a MUCH more sensible investment.

Maintenance is a yearly wash, brighten, and protect. You don’t sand or stain this. It comes back to its natural beauty if you do the three steps. If you don’t, it’s a beautiful silver grey.

Tigerwood is heavy and dense (I laugh at the Carpenter bees now). It’s much harder to cut, carry, drill, and assemble with screws. You’ll need a sharp saw blade, and electric drills work better because the effort when putting in the screws. Use the Camo fastening system which angles the screws diagonally in the edges so you don’t see screws on top. The screws are pricey, but you don’t have to drill, so you are saving a step.

I purchase my Tigerwood from a Charlotte-based company called Advantage Lumber. I’ve been happy with the customer service, shipping costs, and most of all, the beauty of the lumber. I’ve also visited the warehouse to pick up a smaller amount of lumber for the side project (see below). Everyone was so helpful! While you can search online and find several suppliers, I’m just sharing who I’ve used for three projects over the years.

Step to the Side

We’ve since built another Tigerwood dock on the side of my home. My Great Dane, Shade, stepped through a rotten step that had been below grade (not happy with that builder, so I have to do it myself to know it’s done right!), so my dad and I decided to replace the steps. Because of an 18-inch slope of the land and taking into consideration our tools, combined physical strength, and experience, we were deadlocked on how to solve the problem. One side of the bottom step would still be below grade while the other would need a concrete, well, that doesn’t matter… We just couldn’t agree, so we stepped back and thought some more. Dad asked if we could turn the stairs off to the right downhill which got me thinking we could turn them UPHILL (he and I are polar opposites when solving problems). That then sparked the idea of building a “dock” to the driveway so we could have a new access on the side of the house and wouldn’t have to take trash through the rest of the house.

Our next project will be creating a new shade-loving garden for this area in 2020.

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