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Summer 2023

This project could not get here soon enough. The decks I had built back in 2012 using Lowes Home Improvement pressure-treated Southern Yellow Pine decking boards had rotted years ago. These past 6 months were like tippy-toeing on an ice-covered pond hoping I wouldn’t fall through. And I did. Since I’ve taken a brief hiatus from work, I figured now is the perfect time to do this last project before getting back in the workforce.

I have two decks on each side of my solarium with stairs connecting them and leading down. I’ll connect the two decks with a walkway and ditch the stairs. The stairs will be a later project off to the right of the house when I design how the waterfront deck connects to the side yard deck.

To maximize the view, I’m using Deckorators Contemporary Cable Railing. The foundation of the decks will also be painted white so the left side matches the right. That will have to be done in the Fall when temperatures are not in the mid-90s and mosquitoes won’t carry me away.

A few days prior to renovation and redo, you can see the extent of the rot (scroll through the slideshow). Good news is that the structure itself is sound:

I’m a huge fan of hardwood exotics because of their durability and beauty. Plus, they don’t have toxic chemicals like arsenic, copper, and chromium pressurized into them.

Over 3,200 pounds of Cumaru were delivered for the decking. Supplies were limited for matching rails and posts, so I needed an alternative. While the hardwood is pricier than treated decking, it holds up extremely well to the season AND to carpenter bees. My other decks are Tigerwood, but it was not in stock, so I went with a complementing, delightful Plan B. The grain on this wood is gorgeous!

To give you an idea, on the Janka hardness scale, here’s how the lumber measures up:

• Southern Yellow Pine (treated lumber at Lowes) rates 870.

• Cumaru ranks 3540.

• (Tigerwood is 2160)

The Janka hardness test measures the force necessary to embed a 0.444 inch steel ball to half its diameter in wood.

If you’ve browsed my other projects, you know my source has been Advantage Lumber. (I don’t get any benefit for a shout-out. They’ve earned my loyalty!)

Some people stay away from hardwood because they hear it’s hot on the feet during the summer. Well, yes, it is. It’s very heavy – much denser than pressure-treated lumber and it is treated with cancer-causing chemicals, so why do you want to walk barefoot on that?. READ MORE ABOUT THE DANGERS OF TREATED LUMBER

The option of Trex or other composite decking boards is equally as hot, and those are not natural products. Cumaru and Tigerwood are natural, extremely hard so they last exceptionally long, they don’t start fraying and splintering, and they weather into a silvery grey. You certainly can clean and brighten them to nearly restore their beauty (as you would with treated lumber). Personally, I clean and reseal about every 3 years, and while it doesn’t fully restore to Day 1, it’s beautiful, durable, and in great shape over a decade later.

While people complain that exotics need annual treatment, the Environmental Protection Agency recommends pressure-treated lumber is safe “as long as the treated wood receives a coating of pigmented, wood-penetrating oil sealant annually.”

More pics to come!