When we do above ground pool decks the pattern requires tapered rips as the decking always runs into the pool all around. No problems so far. We are doing a garapa project now with two ipe inlays two of the garapa rips are 1'' wide we fastened them to the last piece of decking first with tightbond 111/ss screws. Be extra carefull with the predrill/countersink and you should be fine and of course I always use construstion adhesive when putting down the South American lumber. I was over your way for the night race,We just droped in to see the George and the East Teak Folks. George is a Bike rider as well as a good friend so I left that photo of the scoot we took the plane on that trip. A couple of my workers came by after work while checking out the Harley one said " this is John's new toy " I said no Man thats not a toy thats a GirlFriend. J.

Would love to see the photos, but when I click on it the only thing I get is a cat food commercial. I'm fairly new to this, what am I doing wrong? We are about to embark on a deck redo also and have looked extensively at Azek. I'm going to do the floor in Acacia color and the railing in Kona (because there is no railing in Acacia). To tie it together I'm going to have the second board in from the outside be in Kona and the Kona color railing will go on the outside board which will be the Acacia.....just trying to change it up a bit. Your comments are letting us know we are on the right track....especially about the ketchup and wine as we entertain outside a lot. Thanks for the informative post.

Lots of questions here so I'll try to give my answers based on my experience in playing with both biscuit types and CAMO, as well as my customer feedback. I'm now leaning towards preferring CAMO as a hidden fastener because I think it gives you the best stability possible out of all types of hidden fasteners. With CAMO, you are putting two screws into each joist at a 55-degree angle. With a biscuit system, only one screw. I also like the fact that if you do have problems with a board, you can remove the CAMO fastener and remove the board and replace. It's much harder to do with a clip system and even then you have to plug the replacement board on one end according their own instructions. The gap is a little wider but I don't think you will be able to tell much of a difference with a 6" board. They have a 4" jig out now. How much airflow do you have under the deck? How high is it off the ground? These factors are important if you ware worried about cupping. Most cupping I've seen is due to no airflow underneath and the deck is low to the ground with a moisture imbalance. A thicker and narrower board helps prevent this, so 5/4 thickness would offer more stability than 4/4 if it works for your budget, but I've seen CAMO used numerous times on 1x6. The screw hole will ride a little higher on the eased edge of a 5/4 board but still very minimal aesthetic. You can see the screw holes if you re looking at them from an angle, but over the top they are barely noticable. Since Ipe is darker, especially if put a finish on it, I don't even think you'd notice them. CAMO's stainless steel screws are 316 stainless (vs. 305) which is what you would want for a salt environment. They are more expensive, but if you do the math with CAMO vs. clip system, CAMO comes out less expensive and I think it's more secure. Finally, PRE-DRILL your holes. Stainless Steel is soft and you will strip out more scews than you care to if you don't pre-drill...and let the screw do the work, don't push down on it. CAMO says you don't have to pre-drill but they do recommend that you do for hardwoods. I concur on this with my testing, especially when you are close to the end of the board. I was able to set the stainless screws without pre-drilling, but I stripped out or broke the head off of 1/3 of them and the boards cracked where I tried to fasten them at the ends. On my pre-drilling tests, they set perfectly. Also, if you decide to go with the CAMO, get the PRO jigs since they have screw guides on both sides, making it easier to install without moving the jig. And get two jigs so you can properly space your boards, as well as a BoWrench to make sure they are snug when you are fastening. Start with the outside part of the board (pushing back inwards to your boards already laid), then fasten the inside edge to keep them snug. I built a little 2x2 sample deck out of Garapa using the CAMO sytem that I can send you some pictures of if you want to see them. If CAMO was available when I built my dad's Ipe deck, I would have used it (we face-screwed and plugged it). Every person I have talked to who has used CAMO has loved it, even an installer I know that hates clip style hidden fasteners but now uses CAMO on every job. I've only had one installer say that he didn't like it, I think becuase he was pretty set in his ways and did't want to take the time to get used to it. So I recommend that you practice on some scrap pieces before you use it on your main boards. I think CAMO just cut a deal with Lowe's so you may see them in the store soon. There are plenty of online retailers to buy from, so maybe buy one jig and a small 100pc package to play with them to see if you like it. If not, keep the jig packaging, clean it off and send it back. Minimal investment to test it out. Sorry this is long but it's my .02. Hope this helps.

Deck guy finally came and met with us this morning. He sounds like he wants to fix the lower deck, but it isn't clear that he knows what to do. We've got him to see that he needs to raise the deck up off the ground, so there is some room for cross-ventilation. (As an aside, this deck gets full sun exposure, which is great for us but not so great for any wood sitting there).... We suggested, when he wasn't really coming up with anything, raising the deck up the equivalent of one step, and then adding that step back by the pool, and also pulling the deck back away from the pool. So there are still problems: 1. he says he doesn't want to go with face fasteners/IPE plug combination, because it won't let the wood move - but then he says he wants to fasten the IPE by running a bead of PL400 (some kind of glue??) and then just use a trim gun to kind of keep the wood in place while the glue is drying??? Somehow, I just don't get why this would be better than face fastening... 2. he did at one point mention something that sounded like John's floor vents - that he had used before somewhere else - which begs the question of why in the world he didn't put those vents in this framing that he had sitting right on the ground..... aaggghhhhhh 3. if we go with step down to the pool, then is there some kind of vent we can put in the facing that goes from the horizontal part of the step to the 'ground', to get ventilation that direction? sorry I don't know the technical terms for the parts of the step.... 4. since we are doing this over, we should get the ventilation right - have cross-ventilation, shouldn't we? we had to push him for that. and shouldn't we go with face fastening/IPE plugs rather than gluing??? 5. he wants to go with 1x4 instead of 1x6 boards, but I said that wouldn't decrease any cupping, but just make it harder to see any cupping... (we are talking about new wood as we can't reuse anything down there now.... zapped by the combination of no cross-ventilation, hot sun and EBTY clips not holding.... Comments are welcome. He's coming back to me on Wednesday with his proposal for what he wants to do.... I would like to know what we should tell him is okay and what is not.... Sure wish one of you guys were closer to Fairfield County, CT.... Then I could really find out exactly what we should do....