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Porch Floor

Started by flhtc, December 28, 2002, 07:53:42 PM

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flhtc

As I will be getting a mill within the next month I am starting to collect logs so I can get right to cutting.  One of my first projects will be to replace the tongue and groove flooring on my front porch.  The pine flooring has been in place for less than four years and is already starting to rot.  The porch is covered and the floor is painted.  I need to know what species of wood I can use that will be decay resistant. The species I have available are honey locust, red oak, hackberry, cottonwood, ash, and sycamore.  Will any of these work.

Thanks,
FLHTC
FLHTC

Tom

If you were donw here I would say that the best you could do would be to pressure treat the pine and put it down.  Paint works some but pressure treating is best, then paint it.  You should be good for 30 years or so then. :)

Many floors succumb because of condensation on the unprotected underside.

Jeff

None of the above sound like good choices to me. :-/

Back in the early 80's there was a boom market for aspen landscape timbers. They had to be dipped in a mineral spirits/Tar/ and some other assorted crap solution. We cut probably 3 million feet of them in a year and a half. The market crashed at that 18 month mark. All these dip treated landscape ties were now just shells of tar. They rotted away from the inside out in just a year and a half.

I guess where I am getting at it paint is not a solution for green lumber that is not naturally decay resistant. I think I would go with treated if you can't find cedar.
Just call me the midget doctor.
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Commercial circle sawmill sawyer in a past life for 25yrs.
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ADfields

Well the first thing that comes to my mind is why do you have a T&G front porch?   I would think you would be way beter off to let the water go on past and not keep the wood wet in the joints.   I know it's a covered porch but it will still get water on it and that will make it rotif it cant get dry.   I would think not having a T&G joint and bords that are not very wide so the water can drain past would help a bunch, also help with underwicking if you have that.   I would also go for pressure treating the pine like Tom but I would go with a waterseal and skip the paint, I find it very hard to paint over wood but thats just me. ;)
Andy

Fla._Deadheader

There's a product called "Woodlife" that has been out since I was a lil fart, building my first boat. It is clear or colored, and is-was used for keeping wood from rotting in boats. It is, I think, also a bug deterrent. It is VERY wet, meaning it soaks up like crazy. I think I have a small can in the garage. I will look for it and get back. I would think this is where the "old growth" feature comes into play. When I was a kid, in the 40's and 50's, there were a LOT of front porches that were T&G. As far as I know, most of them are still functional, and they were all painted "UGLY GREY". Remember them anybody ?? They never rotted.
All truth passes through three stages:
   First, it is ridiculed;
   Second, it is violently opposed; and
   Third, it is accepted as self-evident.

-- Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)

wiam

Florida
How could we forget?  My grandfather,s porches were all grey.  And most of the floors inside too.

William

Frank_Pender

...TC I have been using a product manufactured by Heartwood corp.  It is called Timber-Tek  UV.   I have a 10' chainsaw carved bear out of Western Red Cedar at the entrway to the sawmill site on the Tree Farm. It looks just as fresh as the day it wasd carved almost two years ago.  This is the only product I have used on the carving.  It is also a wood preservative.  The company website is at: www.timbertekuv.com.   Give a look and a try.  It also come in six different shades or tints.  I have only used the clear.  the best of fortune in your porch project.  I too recall very vividly, the gray front porches of Old Growth Vertical Grain Fir t & g.
Frank Pender

flhtc

I agree the tongue and grove probably cause a lot of the problem but my house was built in the 1800's and i want to keep the correct look.  

Luckily there are more paint options than just gray today.  I painted the porch light green to match the trim.

Did the original flooring last so much longer pecause it was old growth lumber.  It was pine and had been in place for 30 years that I know of.

I will look into the clear coatings you mention.  I would much rather have a natural wood floor than painted.

Thanks
FLHTC

beenthere

flhtc
The honey locust should be a good choice if you want to work with it all the way to the flooring and installation stage.
If you could add white oak to that list of woods available, then it would be better than the ash or the red oak.  Put on a water repellent preservative with no pigment.
  There has been a lot of good advice here (Woodlife used to be real good, when they had Penta in it for a preservative), but getting the preferred vertical grain Douglas fir heartwood isn't as easy as it used to be. So it will be hard to duplicate the circa 1800's woods. Old growth of the wrong species won't help much either. The 4 years from the pine gives you a good idea what using the wrong species and treatment will be your rewards.
south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

Ron Scott

Some of you old Navy "salts" probably used a lot of that "battleship grey" paint.
~Ron

flhtc

I have not been able to get any white oak logs yet but I am looking.  They should not be too difficult to come by.
FLHTC

Fla._Deadheader

Yer correct. No Penta. Has 3-lodo-polyphenyl carbamate, 0.5%, 99.5% inert. I know of boats that were continually wet, for years, that had been treated with Woodlife. They finally sank or were junked, but, usually they only had a couple of real bad boards. What about white cedar?? That is GREAT boat lumber and should work for a porch ???
All truth passes through three stages:
   First, it is ridiculed;
   Second, it is violently opposed; and
   Third, it is accepted as self-evident.

-- Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)

sawmill_john

Frank told me about Timber Tek, I listened and ended up usinf it on my newly cut redwood deck last summer, I was very impressed after talkiing with them.  Frank and I are lucky the factory is here in Portland.  They also mix about any shade you could every come up with.  I wanted to try to keep the natural look of the redwood, but they don't have a clear that is also protects the wood from the uv rays.  I'll try to get a picture of the deck, rigth now it looks bad because the DanG dog dosen't have enough sense to stay out of the rain & mud.  Thanks for the tip Frank!

john    

flhtc

Deadheader- I don't think I there is any white ceader in my area, I may be wrong.

John- The timbertek sure looks like it is worth a try. I think part of the problem I had with the pine was that I did not finish it before instalation so the back side is unprotected.

FLHTC

TJACK

I father was a contractor for 35 + years in New England and in PA.  He said most of the porches were made from Douglas Fir or Sugar Pine and painted grey.  

I am making the flooring of my deck out of kiln dried, planed and sanded poplar, stained with 3 coats of Sikkens. All 4 sides stained twice, the decking screwed down and another coat put on.  The deck will be covered and I am hoping for the best.  In my area, Douglas Fir and Sugar Pine must be shipped in and the cost was not worth it ( I hope I am right)

TJACK

woodmills1

tjack, is that the 2 stage sikkens clear.   Man that is some good stuff.  the red cedar sided houses with that on them around here look like furniture years later.
James Mills,Lovely wife,collect old tools,vacuuming fool,36 bdft/hr,oak paper cutter,ebonic yooper rapper nauga seller, Blue Ox? its not fast, 2 cat family, LT70,edger, 375 bd ft/hr, we like Bob,free heat,no oil 12 years,big splitter, baked stuffed lobster, still cuttin the logs dere IAM

TJACK

Woodmills1,

No, it is not a two stage deal.  I call Sikkens technical support line and told them the wood I wanted to use and what I was using it for.  They recommended Cetol Dek, putting two coats on all four sides, lightly scuffing between coats.  Then putting one last coat on after the decking is down.  The key to success they said was to sand down the wood after planing to open the grain.  This took some time even with a belt sander.\

I currently have the two coats on and plan on putting the decking down in the spring.

TJACK

Noble_Ma

Most of the porches in NE on older houses were T&G fir.  Lately, the building supply has been selling T&G mahogony cheaper than the fir.  We use CWF ( Clear Wood Finish ).   It comes clear or tinted and works well on pressure treated as well as untreated wood.  The key is to get a coat on it at least every other year.  It goes a long way and I usually treated all the decks once a year.  You can even stain the deck and than use the clear over it.  Penta products have been outlawed here in Mass for years but were the best for preserving wood.  

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