I am always going to be on the side of the Contractor. Us Contractors need all the money we can get and there is no scale to measure how much is too much. General Contractors add in their cut on top of the regular costs. Usually its around 20%. That said your geting the corn cob where the sun dont shine. The man's pricing on routing/screwing is way out of line >> If I was doing the Job Your stuck with the Dude live with it. Do the best you can with screwing all the 2x6 decking down You really want that. Actually it would have been better to put down 5/4 over 2x6 with pt lumber the more size the more movement,same lifespan, but what the hay. The trim head screws will put less stress on the decking and will counter sink. The Man will most likely want to use big head screws, because thats what he knows, they will sit slightly below the decking on install done right and after a season will be flush or a little above the decking. Do what he wants to do. Its not worth the fight. Dont leave any gap at all, and dont jam the decking up by force, just snug them up. There is going to be plenty of space between them in a short time. I run into this kind of thing with new buildings all the time. The Deck has little importance in fact its delt with as an after thought. Thus......a lot of them are very short lived. That's a good thing for Me I have a steady business replacing them. Hang in there Larry, its just a deck, when its all done and the smoke has cleared, Get out there and have a Lone Star beer. Life is good and too short to mess with the small stuff. JonMon

A few years ago I was looking around for white oak,very good stuff same qualities as ipe, and ran into white cedar,eastern white cedar,true northern white cedar,atlantic swamp cedar, white cedar that actually is a cypress ...and on and on it went. "white cedar " seems to be about the same as Western Red cedar far as decay/bugs go. Due to transport cost one is used on the east one on the west and of course the wr trees are much bigger so the lumber has more sap wood. Go for it Stacey!!! It will help out the local cash flow.But dont expect the the long term service of South American or quality manmade. J.

HI Mom ! its ok thread hijack is normal over here. TWP 100 series,I use the 116 on ipe, is a build coat finish at that poing the twp Folks and I agree. It's after the second coat they call wet on wet, I love saying that, that we differ. They,twp Folks there is a corp 20 miles from my shop, refuse to acknowledge or even talk about how I build coats with their product. Even after coming over and seeing it with their own eyes. I do it this way>> dont wait for anything but good weather to put the finish on a new outdoor project. Using twp 100 series put the first coat on right away put the second coat on, using the sprit of a sound mind, when you can that is not while its still wet to touch.Then leave it alone. You can put the second coat on in an hour,a day, a week well you get the idea I have found the first go around with outdoor finish will not last all that long no matter what you use. Come the early Spring clean up your deck and put on another coat or two durning good weather. The more coats the longer it takes to set up so be ready for that. Twp 100 series has not changed in 20 + years. I have not changed the way I put it on in 12 years. You can build coats with it to the point of a simi gloss with no pealing,lifting at all and you Never have to strip it off. The ol JonMon is signing off now, here is hoping all your beer never goes flat,your kids are above adverage,the irs sees it your way,your Harley is still runing good and Everyone at least one time in their life gets to taste a green chilli from New Mexico. J.

Welcome a board deckbarn guy. Your site is a sales site,not a deckbuilder site. But you have the loud mouth of some Carpenters I know so it seems you know something about the business. But you dont know doug fir at all it has a very long life exposed to the weather without any treatment at all. Its not to be compaired with hem fir.If young Dream used the copper napthenate and used a S & B grade of dougfir on the whole project he would get 6 years + out of it. The frame is not going in the ground remember. You do know what copper naptheate is right barndeck?? anyway Dream my man using this stuf is nasty put on eye protection and gloves. It has a high smell but it will go away after a while. Might run a big fan on it for a couple of days. Doing this it would not suprise me if you got 10 years out of it. John Hyatt www.deckmastersllc.com