Purplehear Decking???

Steve Unkie

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi fella's,
I have'nt had time to visit in a long time, but now I need some help, please.

I'm building a 675 sq. ft. cedar deck. I can get 4/4, tightknot, s4s purpleheart decking for $ 1.59 p/ lf. I would like to offer an upgrade, but have not installed purpleheart decking before.
Have any of you done so? Give me the pro's and con's please.

Thanks.
Steve Unkie.

John Hyatt

Over at www.gardenweb.com in the porches/deck area using the search you can find a really big detailed purpleheart deck. The man has posted a link to his site showing all the steps envolved to completion. John

Stone Mountain

I have purple heart in my kitchen. It's beautiful, but I never thought of it for outdoor use.
I like IPE, Tigerwood, pau lope, teak, and Kayu Batu, which looks like IPE, but is about 10% cheaper.
We're just finishing up a Kayu deck right now, and the client is thrilled.

__________________
Residential Deck Specialist: Vist our Website
www.fenceanddeck.ca

karma_carpentry

Purpleheart fades to brown anyway in the sunlight, and it worries me that it might be overharvested. That seems mighty cheap to me. Around here, cambarra 1x4 decking runs $1.19 / lf.

I've used purpleheart for furniture and inlay, never thought of it for decking.

__________________
Build on a good foundation.

karma_carpentry

When you said cedar, are you talking about WRC?

WRC is very soft for a decking material, isn't it? I've seen rails of WRC but how does it hold up for decking? Think about Spanish Cedar as an option. It's much more common and less endangered in Central and South America. Don't know if there's a milled decking 1x4 made of it, but it's got some natural resistance to rot like WRC and it's somewhat harder, less likely to get all dented up anytime people drop anything on the deck.

__________________
Build on a good foundation.

Steve Unkie

Thanks for the link John, but I could'nt find it.
Stone Mountain & karma, I've been researching the purpleheart and it has qualities similar to IPE. I've seen it weathered and it turns silver gray in time, still looks good to me and my client. Anyway were building it and will get pics on our website soon, I hope.
Karma, yes I was going to use WRC. I usually use 2x6 and even though it is soft, I've never had any issues with it other than the quality of lumber as of late and therefor the price.
Thanks for the input guys.
Steve Unkie.

John Hyatt

O Man!! I went over there and found it right away. That site has a lot of pages but under porches and decks the search feature will put it up.

Its a houmunges project. I have never seen that much purple heart in one place before. Anyway it might be good to take a look the Guy is real freindley and has a total from start to finish deal on his site. You might pick up some things not to do over there. John

PressurePros

John,

Who is it? Anyone I know?

__________________
Ken Fenner
Pressure Washing PA
Roof Cleaning Services PA

John Hyatt

Ken you remember that guy,screen name joshuasoppa,he let that project go gray because it took so long to build and used your rad and vodo finish on it. Had to take the copper pipe balusters off cause the rad was working on them. I tried to post his home page but it only works at the garden web.

He used purple heart 4x4 rail post bolted to the outside and they were moving around like mad He was wishing he had installed them inside the frame. John