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Had a neighbor show me why my deck boards were cupping after just one summer
Last spring I built a new deck in my backyard in Columbus, Ohio. Looked great for a few months then I noticed the boards starting to curl up at the edges. My neighbor Bill who's been doing construction for 30 years walked over one day and just pointed at the gap between boards. He said I left less than a quarter inch between each board and they had no room to breathe with all the rain we got. He showed me how he spaces his with a 16-penny nail as a spacer and also told me to use the bark side facing up. I redid the whole thing over a weekend with 3/8 inch gaps and it's been flat for two seasons now. Has anyone else had a neighbor save them from a DIY mistake like this?
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seanlewis1mo ago
...and that's exactly how most of my own projects have gone too. It's like there's this unwritten rule that the first time you do something, you gotta mess it up just enough for someone else to point out the obvious thing you missed. I swear half of what I know about carpentry came from a neighbor or a random old guy at the hardware store looking at my cart and shaking his head. It's kind of the same with cooking or even fixing a car - you can read all the guides you want but nothing beats someone who's already burned their fingers showing you the shortcut. Your neighbor Bill sounds like a solid dude, glad you caught that before the whole deck twisted apart in a few years.
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river_rivera451mo ago
Holy cow, the hardware store guys really just shook his head at your cart?
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