OMG,,I have been read voraciously,,,John>>>Thats a good thing!!!Lonewolf Person do all the finish on your Ipe project after its installed,if the weather gets too bad wait till spring the Ken's stuff will bring the color back with no harm to the ipe. Pre grouved,as in using the clips? if so its a real good idea to wait just to see what kind of problems come up in the next few moons. J

I expect there are alot of us wondering the same thing now the weather is getting colder. We've been waiting 5 months for our deck to be installed (ours will be cedar, not IPE) and if all goes well will be done within next month. We're just north of Toronto, Ontario and already the nights are too cold to consider doing any kind of a finish on it. We're having a roof done over it, and half will be screened in, so it'll be a little protected but I'll be sure to sweep accumulations of snow off of it.
From my reading, I think it's best to leave it naked until spring - then we'll use pressurepros RAD and a seal with the Bakers Grey away - hopefully it'll be available to us up here by then.

Lonewolf,
I build decks in Brooklyn, and days like we had this week are a deck builders dream...50°-70°. I build decks into december.

The only time you run into problems with building decks in cold weather is dealing with adhesives and sealers.
As for sealing the wood, You can do that in the spring if it's too cold.

the bottom line is, it's still early enough for Long Island.

steve

building...yes.
staining/sealing...no

If there is any kind of dew on your grass, chairs, etc in the morning, then sealing is a bad idea. It will give you problems, and you will end up spending more time and money in the spring to fix it all properly!

Thank you all for the wonderful info and followup, I will go ahead and have the deck installed and will post up pictures after deck has been installed...

BTW. I went with ballusters from http://www.deckorators.com/
(glass balusters clear) haven't seen any recent posts about this product what do you think? For deck lighting I went with these guys:

http://www.hpdlighting.com/

;)

I am advising those up north to wait it out. The ipe won't be harmed it's just too durable.

Note about Baker's Gray Away: While of a decent quality this is a standard sealer. On ipe or hardwoods it will not last as long as what I am introducing in the spring. The results using Bakers will be beautiful but it would definitely be a sealer you will have to use once a year on ipe. The Baker's is produced by Amteco (TWP) and is closest to the 200 series.

It'll be another 6 weeks or so before serious cold weather hits here (I hope, because I still have a painting project to complete).

From my experience, the longer you wait to assemble the deck, the better. Just store the wood in the vicinity of where you plan to do the building, cover it with a tarp, and wait until you can get round to the project.

A couple of years ago I made a mistake when building a porch using pressure-treated framing and IPE T-G decking. I purchased the pressure treated stuff and put the framing together right away. Then I purchased some kiln-dried T-G IPE and within a couple of weeks laid the deck.

I should have let the wood acclimate for a few weeks first. To make matters worse, we were having some unseasonably beautiful, clear, low humidity weather even for October. It is normally very humid here in the summer months, with low humidity in October, and lots of drizzle during the winter, so the wood is going to be constantly expanding and contracting throughout the year.

The project went together beautifully, but after a few weeks, rains season set in. By then, the pressure treated framing had shrunk due to the low humidity. But with the rain, the IPE expanded just enough not buckle, but the end pieces now curl down at an angle. To repair it, I would have to take the posts down, take up he whole deck, and re-install it using new screw holes.

It didn't get any worse over the course of a year, so I don't plan to re-do it. Most people don't even notice it, but every time I look at it, the uneven end boards stick out like a sore thumb.

The decking boards expanded near the edge where water drips off the porch roof, but in the middle of the deck where it gets less wet, the spaces between boards have visibly opened up.

If I do a similar project again, I'll know to pile all the wood on location and let it sit there for a couple of months before beginning assembly, and with T-G use something like automotive shim stock and maintain about 1/40" spacing between each board, to allow for expansion and contraction without buckling or curling.

Don

donk4kyv,

I know some people have had success with T&G Ipe outside, but it just seems like a bad idea to me...especially kiln dried wood. Wood will typically shrink out in the sun, but kiln dried will expand in the rain...so if it's laid tightly, there's nowhere for it to go. you're lucky it didn't buckle (i've see it happen).

Acclimatizing wood is a good idea, if you hsve the luxury of time and space. As an urban deck builder, I don't.
I have to depend on skill and knowhow.

steve

I'm just starting building my deck - footers and ledgers are in, I'm ready to raise the posts / beam and start installing joists. I'm in upstate NY, working on this in my free time, and haven't ordered my Ipe yet (although Bristol Valley Hardwoods, which is local, had enough in stock last I checked - deck is about 240sf). Initially I was hoping to get the frame up and the decking down and sealed before it got too cold. If it is already too cold (doubt we'll get any nights without dew until spring, at least not that can be accurately predicted), what would be the best stopping point? I can put up the beam / joists and do the blocking, but I'm a little concerned that without the decking weight and face screws, they'll tend to move around some. If I put the Ipe down unfinished, we get a lot of snow, and it's doubtful I'll keep up with shoveling it off. I don't want to create more work cleaning the wood in the spring than is necessary.

Should I prefinish the Ipe in the garage before installation and put it down this fall, put it down unfinished, not buy it until springtime and do only the frame, or not do anything more until spring?

Note that for the joists I'm using a combination of wood from my old deck (nice and dry CCA that's still in really good shape) and new wood (ACQ or whatever the local lumber yard uses, likely very wet). I plan on putting the new joists together in the middle of the deck, since they are likely to be slightly thicker from the moisture.

The old deck was removed because it was where the addition now is. Old decking was PT, in lousy shape because it wasn't maintained for the first 5 years.

Hi Mike,

FWIW, I was told by my lumber yard to let the wood "aclimate" out on the back lawn and NOT the garage. It's decking material, year round it sits outside anyway. Sheltering it into the garage will only help to dry/dehydrate the IPE (bad).

Also, as you are like me, and installing IPE, I was also told to just install it with no worries for the FALL/winter and let it weather, IPE will be fine.

In spring time just use RAD and TWP it...

-Alex

PS. Answers were gleaned from this site and phone calls direct to vendor... Good Luck

PS. PS. IPE needs to OPEN up "seasoned" to better accept the sealer in the spring time... Thx John!!! :)

-Alex

I really like this forum alot, I've learned so much...!