Getting the porch deck down was on the agenda for this weekend. It didn’t get finished.
The deck is 4″ tongue and groove (actually covers 3″ swath). Old house folks are often strangely snobbish about materials to use…you’ll hear something like, “They only used planks ripped from the heartwood of virgin forest blue mamba tree. The entire tree must be sacrificed to get a single plank, and it can only be harvested on the blue moon of an even numbered year by nubile virgin females of the endangered vwaliki tribe.”
They will also often go on to tell you that you are destroying your house unless you throw the maximum amount of money possible at each project, and will soundly chastise you for struggling to save the structure on your budget so you have a home (hint: It’s not a museum).
The estimated cost of the material some of these folks recommend eclipses the GNP of a small nation.
Truth is, lumber quality has fallen some over the years…and the price has certainly gone up…but despite this, the Victorians were still stingy where they could be, using cheaper materials where they could.
The original tongue and groove porches on this house were yellow pine…and they are again. We are putting down yellow pine, but with a twist…it is treated, and then kiln dried after treatment (KDAT). This duplicates the look/style of the original porch decking, without totally destroying the bank (it costs just slightly less then the GNP of a small nation). It also provides hope that this deck will outlast me…and perhaps…the age of the original. My objective (and hope) when I do these projects is that I won’t have to redo it again…ever.
So behold…the decking going down!
Porch flooring going down!
I didn’t get much further than this. The heat and humidity this weekend were horrendous…both numbers flirting with the century mark…we set record highs…and record high *lows*!
I am also very much slowed by the necessity to stain all 4 sides of this stuff before putting it down (which was NOT done on the original floor).This should make it last even longer.
The heat was the real killer though. Sunday I got the saws/etc out, measured and cut a few boards, put them down, stained a new batch, and then found myself shaking and weak. Decided I must be getting old and put everything up and took the rest of the day off.
Turns out it was 100 degrees and extremely humid. WAY too hot to be working on that stuff. Ugh.
It IS looking good though.
On another note: This nailer is the best $100 spent ever!
Flooring nailer. Best $100 ever.
I’ve put down/up tongue and groove beadboard with a finish nailer…shooting the nails in the proper place/angle through the tongue…it’s…for lack of a better term…a bitch. This thing is heavy and awkward to get in place, but once get the board in place, and the nailer in place, a whack on the trigger with a mallet (provided with the nailer) and BANG! The nail is in, properly, and it’s not coming out…probably ever.
The nailer shoots these nasty looking things…
That nailer shoots these vicious things…
Supposed to be cooler next weekend. I hope I’ll make more progress.
