Hi all,
I built decking in my garden last week when it had been nice and sunny for a few weeks. I managed to get down the frame and around half of the boards, using 5mm cuts of wood to space each board. The problem came this weekend when I went to lay the rest, the original gaps had grown to around 8mm!
Doing a more extensive Google revealed that freshly cut wood (I have no idea if it was) is likely to shrink, whereas I had assumed it was at its narrowest due to the recent weather.
Would you recommend I unscrew the boards currently laid and relay them at 5mm gap again or will this damage the joists? If I should, is there a better way of doing it than using 5mm bits of wood? Some of the boards were delivered warped so I need to push it up to the 5mm cuts to get a straight line.
Thanks!
I built decking in my garden last week when it had been nice and sunny for a few weeks. I managed to get down the frame and around half of the boards, using 5mm cuts of wood to space each board. The problem came this weekend when I went to lay the rest, the original gaps had grown to around 8mm!
Doing a more extensive Google revealed that freshly cut wood (I have no idea if it was) is likely to shrink, whereas I had assumed it was at its narrowest due to the recent weather.
Would you recommend I unscrew the boards currently laid and relay them at 5mm gap again or will this damage the joists? If I should, is there a better way of doing it than using 5mm bits of wood? Some of the boards were delivered warped so I need to push it up to the 5mm cuts to get a straight line.
Thanks!