I am about to begin the second phase of a backyard project that started last year as a "simple" deck expansion & screened porch addition but escalated into a real challenge for the wallet as well as my personal endurance. Unforeseen ledge outside the old deck resulted in weeks of manual jack-hammering and the removal of the old decking off the house revealed a severely rotten sill-plate resting on 3 layers of old brick (!), an apparent technique used when the house was originally built in 1899. With project design on the fly and after many hours of exhaustive labor, a much thinner wallet and three cement trucks later there is now a new foundation under the fourth of the house that does not have basement (You guessed right because of the ledge!) On the plus side, the ledge was rich in veins and the removed rock proved highly suitable for masonry work so with the help of a talented mason, we now have a new 70 feet stone retaining wall. (The pic is bit funky in the middle since I had to stitch 4-5 images together) My original thought was to install IPE decking over the entire area, i.e. the covered porch floor as well as the outside deck. After having read about all the challenges associated with IPE (and after my wifeÂs continued insistence on a stone patio) we are opting for a compromise  flagstone patio for the outside portion and IPE floor inside the porch per the sketch below. (How can you tell I like Adobe photoshop? :-) This new approach renders the following issues where I am hoping for some GardenWeb advice and suggestions. 1) IPE Porch Floor For the porch floor, we like the look of narrow plank, T&G, i.e. no visible fasteners. The question is how practical is this given the following? The GOOD: The porch will be screened and have an approx.14 inch flat roof overhang which will limit exposure to direct rain on the floor. There will only be some late afternoon sun exposure on the floor on side A facing west. The BAD: There will be poor cross ventilation under the floor (due to stone wall work already done); however, depending on advice under 2) below, there may be a way to permanently prevent any moisture to get in under the floor anyway If T&G OK - any installation instructions that differ from normal indoor flooring? (I have installed one floor previously  reclaimed old oak, ¾" T&G, 6-9" varying width, glued to the joists and nailed through the T.) Questions: 4" or 6" boards, joists 12" or 16" on center, boards jammed tight or deliberately spaced a bit (likely install during typical East Coast high humidity Aug-Sept), type/size of screws & pre-drill bit, what pitch if any, etc. 2) Flagstone Patio Instinct tells me the patio should have a small step down from the porch floor and a pitch away from the porch, however having completed the stone wall last year with a rim joist height suitable for decking the whole area, I have "painted myself into a corner": A) Behind the rim joist we never bothered with decorative stone but only cement so laying the stone patio lower than the top of the current rim joist (to be removed) is not realistic. B) The cement slab for the grill was poured to be flush with the intended deck, i.e. it is one inch higher than the rim joist and the steps from the upper grass area were done with an intended landing at rim joist level It seems my only option is to raise the porch floor (deck joists yet to be installed) which I had planned to fit snugly under the sill of the sliding door. Luckily, the extra tall slider is set 3-4 inches below the indoor floor so there is room for a few fill in pieces on top of the sill. I would then have to pitch the patio from side B towards D (~13ft) and from C towards A (~32ft). How much pitch? I am a bit concerned this may not look right given that the increasing height difference between the patio and porch from C to A would be visible and perhaps make the porch look poorly leveled or even out of plumb.(?) Another thought would be to create a below surface, pitched channel around the porch perimeter (think castle moat) and install a few 2" or 4" wide drainage grates along side D. I would still have to pitch from B to D but could keep the height difference along D constant by pitching the channel under the grates towards A. In either case, I would have to do a small buildup for the half column base outside the porch which is OK. I also realize I would have a bit of cement exposure at the bottom of stone wall side C towards the house but with some chisel/masonry work I can probably fix that In either scenario, if done right, there would be no chance for water/moisture to ever get in under the porch flooring. Thoughts - Alternatives? Thanks Max

Wow, I realize this is pretty well after the post, but for what it's worth for others... I have about a fifteen-year-old ipe (called Pao Lope when I bought it) deck. All framing beneath is pressure-treated pine, up-sized by a factor of one, sprayed with Thompson's Water Seal and left to dry and change dimensionally for a year before the ipe was applied, with the frame's joists first re-leveled by cutting, sanding, or adding pressure-treated spacers before the good stuff went down. My ipe boards are plain, 6" x 1" decking, fastened with trim-head square drive stainless steel screws over 16"-spaced joists. Posts are 4"x4" ipe, balusters are 1.5"x1.5" ipe, and railing is a 2"x6" ipe over 1"x4" ipe. All connecting bolts, washers, and nuts are stainless steel, as are the hurricane ties and nails connecting joists to beams. No two boards terminate on the same joist (it requires careful planning for doubled joists where needed) I have never applied a finish to it. For years, I only pressure-washed it to clean. Now, each year, I apply Wet and Forget cleaner, and later wash the deck with a 2700 psi power washer with a 40º tip held close to the wood (just water), and it turns a lovely beige that weathers to a beige-grey until the next time it is power-washed. It looks as if, when the house collapses, the deck will still be there. I still have railing miter joints that are too tight for a piece of paper to fit in. Fine Homebuilding has wonderful deck-construction books that I bought and followed when I built my deck (12' 4" x 50' - three separate projections following the outline of the house, with 45º outside corners, and sections that wrap around the side of the house for an additional 6')

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.

George @ East Teak here. For all asking, this wood came from me. Ideally I wished everything I sold was perfect and so many of the post here allude to the good product we offer. For the guys who work with ipe everday, bowing, width differences, etc. are not a problem. For the DIY's, they see so many of the beautiful finished pcs of art that they do not realize that each deck and homeowner has a lot of sweat equity in their project which makes it that much more special. As the projects are worked on, the realization is that there is a lot of work involved and each DIY should be busting with pride from their efforts and achievments. As their experience grows daily, they realize that they are working with natural products that seem to have a mind of their own. Other than the actual builders,The Hyatts, Brklyn Decks, and pressure pro guys are the real heroes here. They do an incredible job of tempering reality with practicality