What you want to do is put the best face of the board up.
What direction do you lay decking boards.
Then screw a straight board to the deck as a saw guide and cut all the boards at once.
As the wood dries it will shrink leaving a small gap between each board.
To lay a deck this way joist have to be set no wider than 300mm apart so you may need one or two more joists extra.
I am remodeling an old deck with new wood.
The board will shrink and warp in the opposite direction of the rings in the wood.
Grain up or down.
When using pressure treated wood that s still saturated with preservative install the boards without a gap between them.
Why boards warp.
If you use the conventional method of using a spacer in between each decking board eventually the decking boards look like they are starting to bend and continue reading how to lay straight decking boards.
The result is either a cupping of the wood or a crowning depending on which way you face the board.
In the case of a deck board this determines whether you have a cup warp concave surface or a crown warp convex surface.
Grain direction bark side up pith side up doesn t really matter.
And the good news is that the answer is simple.
We all have seen decks where the decking boards are not running in straight lines.
There has been conversation about this amongst deck builders for years.
Here are some tips when laying the deck boards.
Once the frame is built make sure it is completely square by measuring from corner to corner making sure the measurements.
The change in the direction of the deck boards really makes each deck its own little area.
The setting out of the decking boards will make or break any deck.
A board that is correctly installed right side up or bark side down will form a crown and allow water to run off the edges.
Almost like its own little room.
Laying decking boards in a diagonal direction gives the deck a very noticeable look.
Cutting the ends of deck boards as you go not only takes longer but it s harder to get a crisp straight line.
Does it matter which direction you place deck board.
My take is this.