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Porches & Decks

Ipe cut ends not sealed after cutting?

16 years ago

I caught the contractor laying down boards with cut ends that had not been sealed with Anchorseal. I specifically stated in our contract that ALL cut ends were to be sealed with Anchorseal before they were screwed down.

How big of a deal is this? I don't want to deal with cracking and splitting because they took a shortcut hoping I would not notice ...

Should I make them take up the planks and seal the ends? Also, it seems a bit hard to tell which ones were not sealed unless there is some staining on the board face. I know the cut ends on the latest boards were not sealed just because I saw them make the cut and not do it before laying down the board.

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Comments (3)

john_hyatt
16 years ago
Yo Trav,I never use the thinded down wax on any of my projects,in my mind its a total waste of time,money,and is a trageted marketed product.

However a deal is a deal, both you and your Contractor should do what you said you were going to do. If its in the Contract you have every right to demand the Contract is fullfiled. John
dooer
16 years ago
We seal the ends after cutting with anchor seal.

On one project, I noticed a day later, that a couple of the cut lines had not been sealed yet. After I sealed those cut lines I noticed there was definately a difference in the difference in the ends after the sealer had dried. Those sealed a day later had hairline cracks in the ends, nothing noticable from the top, but still there. No such thing on those end cuts sealed immediately.

So yes, I think it is a good idea to seal the ends.
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travelsfo
Original Author
16 years ago
Thanks John and Dooer.
It's been a few days since these boards have been screwed down now and I have that there are boards with checks and no visible anchorseal staining on the board face (near the cut ends.) My bet would be that these are cut ends that were not anchorsealed.

I'm going to go over the entire deck face and use a brush to push the anchorseal into the gap between the two board ends that are checked. I can use a rag to wipe off the excess from the face of the boards. This may stop the checking -- I'd rather use the anchorseal since we have it. I figure it can't hurt the Ipe at this point ...

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