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Posted by Don Phillipson on September 17, 2007, 7:27 am
> The choice is definitely redwood (already purchased), and while the
> deck (in my opinion) will look nicer with no spacing between the
> planks, I don't want to risk damaging them from shrinking and
> expanding in the Colorado weather. I have heard just as many "no
> reason to space, redwood shrinks/expands very little" as I have
> "definitely space, you will have problems if you don't" answers to the
> question.
>
> So is there anyone that lives in Colorado or a similar climate that
> has experienced this specifically and can give some "been there, done
> that" advice?
Colorado weather probably offers greater extremes
of high and low humidity than places farther west or south.
Expansion/contraction of deck timbers is less important
than drainage. After rain, any wood deck should let the
water run off as fast as possible, i.e. through the quarter-
inch gaps left between timbers. Secondly a deck of
spaced timbers is easier to clean, sweeping so that
dry dust falls between timbers. If you built a flush deck
it would become stained and/or rotten much faster than
a correctly-spaced one.
--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)
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