- #SPACING TREX DECK BOARDS HOW TO#
- #SPACING TREX DECK BOARDS INSTALL#
- #SPACING TREX DECK BOARDS FULL#
In the humid climates you might want to bump that out a 32nd or a 16th of an inch for insurance. If the deck is installed in the winter, then you definitely need that 1/4″ gap. With no drainage comes standing water and a whole new set of movement issues. You still want a little gap just to let rainwater drain through. In the winter I would end up with a typical 1/4″ gap.
#SPACING TREX DECK BOARDS INSTALL#
In the above scenario where I installed the deck in the summer, I could install it with very little gap. Embrace it and plan the gap between that decking accordingly.
#SPACING TREX DECK BOARDS HOW TO#
What is the solution you ask? How to stop the madness? You can’t stop it. Now not only will the gap change, but it may not change consistently across the entire deck. The examples above use flatsawn boards since this is most common. Quartersawn boards barely move across the width whereas flatsawn boards will move the most. Wood moves differently in each direction based on how the wood was cut. Just to make things even more difficult, wood is anisotropic. This results in serious damage and the need to replace decking. Now the boards are buckling and possibly cracking since they have no place to go. Usually the boards expand beyond that 1/4″ gap. In reality, boards don’t always expand evenly, and it will vary depending on where the board was located within the original log. If you are lucky, that original 1/4″ gap is gone. Therefore each board would swell 1/8″ on both sides. In a perfect world we can assume even expansion in both direction. By summer time those boards have expanded by more than 1/4″. Now let’s imagine the opposite scenario where the deck was installed with a 1/4″ gap in the dead of winter. That widening gap will make any deck owner upset. Now your Chihuahua just fell through the gap between the deck boards! Your decking has now shrunk another couple of 16ths of an inch, and that half inch decking gap is closer to 5/8″. Winter is comingįast forward to the dead of winter, and the temperature is now 25° with the humidity around 25-30%. Now your starting 1/4″ decking gap is almost a half inch wide! You dinner guest just got their heel stuck on your deck at that swanky dinner party. If we pick a day in early October and assume 50% humidity and 65°, then the Ipe decking will have shrunk approximately 3/16 of an inch. If we install a typical 1×6 Ipe decking board today using our weather conditions of 90% humidity and 96°, it will maintain that width through the heat and humidity however, as we draw into the fall season, both the heat and humidity begin to drop. All of those wood fibers are like a bundle of straws, and they have sucked up the moisture that is in the air, expanding the board width.Įach decking species will have different movement properties, but let’s use Ipe as an example. Decking is swollen with high humidity all across the Midwest, South, and East coast. In other words, the wood will move, but only in one direction (contracting instead of further expanding). The good news to this is that installing a deck during this weather assures you that your Ipe decking (or whatever wood species you choose) is at one extreme of the wood movement spectrum. It is a great irony that the bulk of deck building happens when the thermometer passes 90 degrees.
#SPACING TREX DECK BOARDS FULL#
The summer heatwave is in full effect across most of the country, and we continue to sell a lot of Ipe decking. This is why you find so much debate on how to set the spacing between your decking, because the answer truthfully is, “it depends.” The Seasons of Deck Board Spacing Like a stopped watch that is only right twice a day, those deck boards are going to expand and contract as the seasons change, and no matter what you do, the gap between the boards will only be consistent for a certain window of time. “I want a 1/4″ gap between my deck boards” Ever have a customer tell you the following when beginning a deck installation? All of these factors will effect the amount of space you put between your deck boards.
How much sun the deck receives, how much rain, temperature swings throughout a day, ventilation beneath the deck, and so much more.
The moisture content of the decking boards, how long they have had time to acclimate to your environment. But that answer doesn’t take into account a lot of factors and can pose problems further down the road. How much space to leave between deck boards? This is the most asked question about installing a deck.
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