Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
weedyacres

Now Showing: Building a Big Ol' Garapa Deck

weedyacres
14 years ago

We've launched our deck build, and will post photos and details of our play-by-play with two goals in mind: we hope that those with experience will chime in if they see us doing something wrong, and we hope to help other DIY-ers. I've benefitted a lot from reading previous posts and staring hard at photos to see fastening methods, edge shots, stain colors, etc.

We hope to get it mostly built by the end of next week, as we're both taking the week off and importing FIL to help, as well as some cheap teenage labor when needed. Estimated cost of all materials is around $13,000.

So here we go. We've spent parts of the last 4 days digging holes for the footers. Our deck is free-standing, with 3 different zones, so we've got a total of 28 stinking holes (8 due to the fact that we can't have a ledger with a brick facade).

Our holes are all 36" deep (local code requires 24") and are a mix of 12", 16" and 24" diameter. After getting 8 holes done the first day, we decided we needed help from some younger backs. So we rustled up some teenagers willing to work for $10 a hole. We used a tractor post hole auger to loosen up the dirt, then had to shovel/post hole it out to the proper depth and circumference.

We finished up Saturday late morning, just as it started to sprinkle. Since it's a holiday weekend, we couldn't get either inspection or concrete until Monday, so we rounded up all our tarp-like covers and covered up the holes. See the covered holes and our maze of batter boards below.

Alas, the rain kept going and mud started forming, so we went and bought a gigantic tarp to umbrella the whole thing. Hopefully it'll keep until Monday and the sonotubes won't have turned to mush. The rain has stopped, but it's still overcast, so we can't risk untarping it yet.

Comments (85)

  • weedyacres
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    Zowie, the forstner bit was just the ticket. Cuts the garapa like buddah. Well worth the three-tool swap-out. John, you saved the day...I owe you bigtime. Here are the triumphant triumvirate:

    I had a collar on the forstner, but it was getting clogged up so I pulled it off and just eyeballed it, which worked fine. I was also able to drive in screws without the pilot hole when the battery ran down. Three hours of solo work finished off the lower deck! Then another 2 hours filling in all the spots that only had a single screw.

    In the pm I continued with the copper flashing around the cedar posts that are sandwiched with the PT, and Mr. Weedy propped up the 7 pergola posts that are not resting on a beam. Here's the view from below.

    I also played with the drill press and made a few plugs. Here's my experimentation (dark board in the middle). Obviously need some sanding. Four down, 396 to go on this part of the deck.

    You can also see the difference in the quality of the holes on the top and bottom boards. Upper screws are with the original countersink bit, bottom screws are with the forstner. Much cleaner.

    Most people would be happy with a 10x16 deck. Heck, it's big enough to tango on it. But no, we still have 500 square feet to cover. At least it's going faster now.

  • salmon_slayer
    14 years ago

    Given the amount of plugs your going to need, you might give your supplier a call. I bought mine from East Teak and they were great. I think they were about 15 cents a piece. well worth the time.

  • thinkstoomuch
    14 years ago

    Ditto on East Teak plugs. I am working with their Ipe plugs right now and am very pleased...........

  • john_hyatt
    14 years ago

    Im not real sure ET sells garapa plugs,could be.

    Cuting grapa on the drill press is not as hard as ipe but it still puts out a lot of smoke,I am thinking there is a lady poster,so Mam be sure and run a big fan into the work while your cuting them. Also give the plug cutter a break every now and then and give it a cleaning. There are two ways to release the plugs one involves the table saw and the other is just poping them out with a screw driver I have found the screwdriver works best for me. No matter how cearful I am the table saw rips up a lot of them.

    Counter sink the plug hole a good 1/4'' I usually just go the debth of the forster bit. JonMon

  • marcus4
    14 years ago

    weedy,

    I have a 1000 Garapa plugs left over from my project. Email me and we can find a way to get them to you. marcus4atcomcastdotnet

  • weedyacres
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    ABS offered me plugs, but at 15 cents apiece (for a tiny piece of wood???) that was going to be over $400, and I figured the wood is free and my time is cheap, so we're doing our own. I can cut 200+ plugs in an hour, so my payback is at least $30/hr, which tipped the scales to DIY on those. (Marcus, I have emailed you.)

    John, you're right, after about a half dozen plugs the drill press starts smoking, so we've got a little container of water that we dip the drill bit in to keep it cool. And we're going the screwdriver route as well.

    We got a hefty rain last night, so had to let the deck dry out until mid-afternoon. Then three hours of plugging and our holes are closed up! Plugging is simple enough, but awfully tedious. I had a small bin of light, one of medium, and one of dark plugs, picked the closest one to the board I was doing, aligned the grain, and popped it in with some Titebond III.

    Here she stands:

    Tomorrow we start on the "grill deck" (the one in front of the turret).

  • weedyacres
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    Well, got a good start on the grill deck today. It took a bit of time to figure out where to start the first board, add blocking for the trim piece, cut/align the trim piece and do all the cutting around the pergola posts. But at least the drilling and screwing goes forth steadily without breaking bits.

    Right now the trim piece is just laid over the decking boards. Obviously we still need to cut them off.

    We tried an experiment with the plugs: making the plugs from a piece of the same board so the color match is good. How OCD is that!! Don't know if we'll keep it up, but it's an interesting experiment. One new issue with the plugs, though. They're not snug. Either the plug cutter's cutting small or the forstner bit's cutting too big (both are 3/8"). The plugs just slip in, no pounding required. Do we need to step up the size of the plugs?

  • john_hyatt
    14 years ago

    It will probley work with enough glue but the TB111 will leave a little dark circle,no big deal with the finish on.

    Using a tapered plug cutter would help. www.leevalley.com
    or www.wlfuller.com for a carbide tapered plug cutter.

    Pretty soon youall are going to know all the little tricks. J.

  • weedyacres
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    We found a tapered plug cutter at Lowe's, so we'll see if that does the trick.

    We only had this evening to work on the deck today. So here's another not-too-exciting "weedy put a few more boards in" shot. But we did get one pergola beam up!

  • salmon_slayer
    14 years ago

    good picture angle. It looks like you are staining the pergola. If yes, staining it before it goes up is a smart idea. Much easier to do before putting it up. We are making very slow progress completing our Ipe deck. We got distracted with having to install a bunch of patio doors, only being able to get to it on weekends isn't helping and someone got into my garage and stole a lot of tools. (I had brought them home from our vacation house because I was concerned about leaving them there - go figure)
    Steve

  • weedyacres
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    Woo-hoo! We got the decking on the grill deck done and all 3 pergola beams up today.

    Good idea to stain the pergola first, salmon. Unfortunately we haven't settled on the color yet (we have to experiment to get something that makes the cedar and garapa coordinate well).

    Bummer about your tools.:-(

  • sparks66
    14 years ago

    Man you really should have gone with T&G garapa ;-)

  • john_hyatt
    14 years ago

    Like I said youall are some hard workers,the thing looks good to me. I am not understanding the little posts coming up but Im sure I will. JonMon

  • weedyacres
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    Rain, rain, go away. The garden loves it, but it doesn't do much for deck building. Two days of nothing, and tomorrow we've got "stuff." Have to do some catch-up on Saturday.

    The inspector did stop by to check out our framing and pronounced it "overbuilt." That's what we wanted to hear. We've been trying to decide whether or not to put diagonal bracing in underneath since it's free-standing. The AF&PA's Design for Code Acceptance calls for it on all decks over 2 feet tall. Ours is on the borderline (parts over 2 feet, parts under, tallest post only about 18") and there's not enough clearance for the 2-foot-to-2-foot diagonal the DCA prescribes. I asked the inspector and he said "not required." So I think we're going to skip it.

    While moaning at the weather, I did do some calculations and design on the stairs, and bought the materials for them. Here's the plan (feedback welcome):
    --4 inch slab for the stringers to rest on (local code says slab is sufficient), supported by some 2-foot-deep 8" diameter footings, since the ground it's on is relatively newly disturbed, so we expect some settling.
    --2x6 .40 ACQ shot into the concrete perpendicular to the stringers.
    --Stringers at 15-16" OC, tops held to joists by sloped hangers, bottoms nailed to 2x6 base. We're using pre-cut stringers because I don't want to mess with making my own, and we can grade the ground to make the slab exactly where we want it.
    --Treads from 1x6 decking, routered sides. (can't remember who posted theirs, but I liked the look)
    --Risers faced on 3 sides with more decking, mitered corners.

    One set of stairs is about 4' wide/5 steps, one about 8' wide/6 steps, and one will be box stairs instead of stringers. 3 short steps from 2x6s.

    Other thoughts/ideas?

  • riles_j
    14 years ago

    I'm with you on the pre-cut stringers. I cut my own and they were a pain in the neck. They turned out good, but if I had to do it again I would of used the pre-cut ones.

    On the risers I also mitered the corners, but if I were doing it again I would of just ran the one in front long and butted the side risers up behind. The mitering was more work and the way the wood moves outside it is tough to keep these miters tight. It could just be my DIY woodworking skills.

    Riles

  • weedyacres
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    Boy, we did something really dumb. We had 3 slabs to pour for stair landings and I calculated the concrete we needed at 1.5 yards. Local ready-mix suppliers have a 3-yard minimum, so it was going to cost $270 even though we only needed $135 worth. So I went to Menards to price the bags. A helpful employee was nearby and offered help, so I said I needed 1.5 yards of concrete. The bags don't speak in terms of yards, they say X square feet 4" thick needs Y bags. The employee did some in-his-head calculating and said 14 bags. That sounded like a deal, to get off for $50 instead of $270.

    He was off by a factor of 4. I should have taken a couple minutes to do my own math to figure that out. Unfortunately I didn't until we had used all 14 bags on the smallest of our slabs. By then we had already sunk $50 in, so went ahead with bags on the rest...and spent a total of about $220. DUMB DUMB DUMB!!! Did I mention that mixing them up 2 bags at a time in the mixer we borrowed from our neighbor took 5 hours instead of the half hour that a concrete truck would have taken? Why didn't I stop and think???

    Anyway, we did get the 3 slabs done today.


    In the meantime, I've been putzing away at the decking in between rain and making concrete forms. Halfway done on the main deck! My tortoise pace usually takes 10-15 minutes per board. It goes faster if there's a second pair of hands running the bowrench, but I haven't had that luxury much.

    After finishing up the concrete, Mr. Weedy left on what will be a 3-week cross-country bike ride with his dad.


    I'm trying to decide whether to surprise him with a complete deck when he returns or go on strike and refuse to do anything until he gets back. :-)

    BTW, John, I told him it'd be nice if he'd swing through OK on his way back and buy you a tecate. You won't hold it against him that he drives a rice burner, will you?

    Riles, thanks for the input on the stairs. That's some good food for thought. Could you post a photo showing the side view of your stairs (couldn't see one in your other posts)? Did you cut the wraparound part of the risers off to match the diagonal of the stringers or take it all the way to the side of the deck, to make a more solid look?

  • john_hyatt
    14 years ago

    Mrs Weed Mam, I am not understanding all that Creet for such a small stairway. Unless you all are planing something extra to land on that slab it is way to the max overkill.

    Compaired to what you have already done cuting stairbucks is easy. No way would I use the homecheppo pre cut one chance in a bunch they are going to give you what you need.Just post the rise and run and the JonMon will give you the cut.

    I have respect for any Rider that goes it for 3 weeks,its not the way I do it with the trailor and all but what the hay. See if He wants to come on over Me and Susan will put him and the Dad up for the night, then take him on over to the Freedom Harley shop to look at a real Motorcycle, Just Kidding Girl,phone and map are on my site.
    JonMon

  • weedyacres
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    That slab is for stairs that will be 8 feet wide. The other slabs are smaller. We made them deeper than needed so there's a little concrete to walk on before you land on the grass or whatever path we decide to put at the end of it. Yeah, a bit overkill, but what else is new with this deck? :-)

    Today my goal was to finish the decking on the main deck. I got o-o-o-h-h-h so close, but then the rain AGAIN kept me from crossing the finish line. This is the rainiest July ever, I think. My knees and back are quite ready to be done with decking.

    So next up is plugs (I know I should have been doing this as I went along) and skirting, then stairs. A couple questions:
    1. Plugs: Marcus kindly sent me a big bag of plugs. They all look to be light colored. If I plug them on light boards and dark boards, will the stain make them all blend in or do I need to match the tone a little more to make them less conspicuous?
    2. Skirting (1): I'm using deck boards for this. Is it ok to attach them with SS finish nails? I found some that fit my Paslode and I'd SO love to nail instead of screw & plug.
    3. Skirting (2): Any tips for straightening bowed boards on the skirting? The Bowrench won't exactly help me here.

  • john_hyatt
    14 years ago

    NO problem with the plugs Allison,they will all blend together.

    Fastening the skirting with 2 1/2'' trim nails is all good the length is so short you should be able to tap them into place. Good Idea to use construstion adhesive behind them. Provide cross ventalation in the skirting very important. Keep the shorts stacked up,dry, and under cover if your using them for skirting.

    Strong Women, way to go!! Hows He doing on the bike with all the rain. J.

  • weedyacres
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    On the skirting, I was just planning to cover up the joists with horizontal deck boards, not extend all the way to the ground with vertical ones. I'll plant stuff to cover up the other ugly, and leave it generally open for ventilation. Just regular old heavy duty construction adhesive ok, or do I need to use some outdoor/waterproof kind?

    Photo above notwithstanding, all of our lumber is safely ensconced under our jumbo tarp around the side of the house.

    Today I braved the mud and framed up stairs #1. It took about 3 hours, and I had to do some shimming & trimming to make them all line up in near perfection. Speak up if there's anything I need to rip out or reconfigure. The center stringers are very secure but the outside ones have a bit of a wobble in them, probably because they're secured by angle brackets on one side instead of joist hangers. Will adding the treads tie it all together or should I use joist hangers on all (it'll be covered up by the skirting/fascia)?

    Mr. Weedy's currently in Iowa (where dad lives), but they just decided to hang out there for a few days and won't set out for the long adventure until Sunday. If I'd known that, I'd have wheedled at him to stay down here and build stairs with me. :-p

  • john_hyatt
    14 years ago

    Stairs look good to me,garapa on the treads will study up any shake in them now.

    I have been using the liquid nail heavy dudy stuff for adhesive because the green mafia outlawed the 490 if there is still some on the shelves buy it. The skirting should just bump up to the border overhang just fine. J.

  • salmon_slayer
    14 years ago

    John, I put in blocking, was that overkill or just needed for the posts?

  • thinkstoomuch
    14 years ago

    John, Steve, etc,
    Regarding the stringers above........
    Is the 2x bolted to the concrete pad necessary/recommended, or can the stringers simply rest on the concrete pad? How do you avoid rot from moisture when dealing with stringers connecting to a concrete pad? Is the fact that the wood is pressure treated enough?
    Thanks,
    Kim

  • john_hyatt
    14 years ago

    Blocking the stairbucks will stiffen them up and provide backing for the skirting if its going up and down. And of course its nessecary to place the rail posts.

    It would be a little tricky to fasten the stairbucks directley to the slab and not near as good as the pt plate. Far as rot goes most of us are using micro pro pt lumber now, this stuff is as bad as it can get far as protecting the wood, the worst yet after the fall of cca. I myself have been using motor oil on the pt plates that go in the ground with my Jobs while looking around for something else.

    Its not as easy for me as it was for the Weed's to keep the pt lumber out of the ground most of the time I cant use the zmax metal post brackets just because of the way I frame the decks. Contact with a slab is not as bad as in the dirt but like I said I am looking for a paint on that will brace up the really poor pt lumber we are using now in the more important areas.
    J.

  • sparks66
    14 years ago

    re: skirting

    fwiw...I went with vertical skirting on my steps cuz it is easier to see the step with the contrasting alignment. Easy to do with miter saw and finish nailer.

  • john_hyatt
    14 years ago

    Pretty sure I just found the product I was looking for> Cuprinel<. now why dont they treat framing lumber this way>Never mind I know it makes too much sence. J.

  • Geordon
    14 years ago

    John, Cuprinol No 10 Green is what I have been using. Found a gallon can on sale at Menards for my deck. Works great for cleaning my brush after coating posts to be buried with non-fiber foundation coating, too.

  • weedyacres
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    It's been a few days since I posted, and I got sidelined briefly by an incident between the nailer and my finger, but it turned out to be only a flesh wound, so I'm plodding along.

    Got the big stairs framed (stringed?):


    And used a box step for the transition from grill deck to lower deck, and from lower deck to ground.

    And did a bunch of plugging when we'd had 36 hours of no rain so the decking was sufficiently dry. The East Teak plugs are a lot taller than our homemade ones, so I'll probably use thinkstomuch's method and chop them off with a multimaster before sanding.

    Now I think I'll go in the garage and cut some plugs (need about 700 more).

  • john_hyatt
    14 years ago

    You might want to put 4 little blocks under the box step landing on the garapa its always good to have air and light under a set up like that.

    Taking down the plugs goes pretty fast for me with 60 grit/5'' makita orbital. J.

  • brooklyndecks
    14 years ago

    Weedy,
    Real nice deck. I've enjoyed following the progress.
    A multimaster will work well on those plugs...I wish I had one. Personally, I use an extremely sharp chisel, and chip the plugs close to the deck. Then I sand the remains with my 5" Ridgid random orbital sander with 50 grit discs (the black ones that they sell at Lowes). The Ridgid is a great sander, and that 50 grit is very aggressive.
    Don't spot sand the plugs, as you'll see it after you put on the sealer. Sand the entire deck.

    I look forward to seeing the finished deck.

    steve

  • weedyacres
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    John: How high do I need to raise the box? Is 1/8" or 1/4" enough? I cut the box so it splits the rise exactly in half, so I'd like to avoid having to plane everything down again if possible. Alternatively, would it be sufficient venting if I (I know this is unconventional) drilled a few holes in the decking that will be covered by the steps?

    All I had laying around was 80 grit, and my ROS cut down two at a time in about 30 seconds without too much effort. I'll try the multimaster and compare. I'm worried that if I chisel them I'd sometimes take off too much.

  • OklaMoni
    14 years ago

    I came here WAY late. Please someone explain Garapa for me. Wikipedia thinks it is a juice from sugar cane.

    I will be building a small deck in my back yard, that is why I looked here in the first place.

    I LOVE what you did! It's awesome. But way bigger than I could ever put on my little lot. :)

    Moni

  • john_hyatt
    14 years ago

    1/4'' little spacers would do it Allison you can put them on with tightbond 111 and a trim nailier.

    I never spent the time to get a chisel sharp enough to do that either but really no need the random orbital works fast enough for me. Steve is a class trim Carpenter he has all that stuff.

    Okla google up Garapa Decking,you will get a full screen.
    J.

  • brooklyndecks
    14 years ago

    John,
    It looks like her plugs are 1/2"+ proud of the deck surface. She can't sand them. Those holes in the bottom of the RO sander will grab those plugs, and break them every which way.

    Chiseling is the way to go, or a mutlimaster...or a small japanese style saw.

    steve

  • weedyacres
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    Today was "make the deck purdy" time. I put up a few pieces of skirting (couldn't figure out how to hold both ends of a 16 foot board at the same time, so I had to call in some child labor to help out) and got several pieces up before I remembered John's advice to glue them first. Doh! Then I went to work trimming out the stairs.

    I decided to take Riles' advice and not do the miters on the treads. Instead I routered the fronts with a roundover bit to try and make them a little more finished. On the sides, I just stacked boards along the shape of the stringer. I considered Riles' tread design, making two even pieces, but calculated all the wood I'd have to throw away and instead went with a full board and one about 1 1/4". (It's only a deck...it's only a deck.)

    Then I hit a stumbling block with the treads. My plan was to have them hang over each of the 3 exposed sides by 3/4", just like the decking. But two full boards, even with 1/8" gap, only cover the tread plus about 1/4". Not so purdy. I suppose I can do John's end grain trim, ripping 1/4" off the front board and going from there. Any other options?

    P.S. John, don't be blowing my cover. :-)

  • salmon_slayer
    14 years ago

    well that was an interesting comment......

    "P.S. John, don't be blowing my cover. :-)"

  • john_hyatt
    14 years ago

    Who Me??? Never.

    The endgrain trim works for me. I go about the treads a little different by running the kick plate or the riser cover after the treads are in but yours looks good as well.

    I know you probley will but be sure and add blocking all around the stair posts with construstion adhesive. J.

  • weedyacres
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    Boy, life sure has a way of getting in the way of deck building. :-p

    Those tall plugs only jut up about 1/4", and they're sandable if you position the ROS so the holes don't catch. 60 grit also chews it up faster than 80 grit (of course). I put my child labor to work sanding plugs in between helping me hold boards and he managed just fine. I may still take the Multimaster to the remaining ones if I can find where Mr. Weedy put it.

    I blocked, but didn't know you were supposed to use adhesive on the stair posts, but I will in the future.

    I debated the tread vs. riser first, but if I had done the tread first, the riser would have been 1/2" shy of the stringer cut, and that would have been either an ugly gap or an ugly strip of wood or a lot of work cutting two different boards to make it even. I know, you told me, I should have custom cut my own risers. I will write on the chalkboard 100 times "John is always right." Next deck I'll do that. :-)

    After laboring over the choice of tread design all weekend, I consulted with Mr. Weedy and surprisingly he voted for "cut a thin slice and put it against the riser to build out the tread." My reasoning for laboring over the end grain trim was because my box stair on the other side, which I custom framed (no store-bought stringer) is the perfect size for the original design with full-board treads, so if I changed to end-grain, I'd have to do it on that one too, which would entail shaving down some boards. I weighed the work involved in each, and decided to go with the "thin slice" but I put it in the middle because I thought that looked more aesthetically balanced.

    So here's the final result on the side stair:

    And here's the box stair:

    Do you see what I see? The decking has sure grayed a lot in the month it's been down. Guess that answers my question about whether we need to freshen it up before we stain.

    I routered the sides of the treads with a roundover bit, and am leaning towards doing that across the fronts as well to make a more unified look.

  • salmon_slayer
    14 years ago

    I am impressed with how far your getting doing this in your "spare" time. The photo showing the graying was great. When do we get some stain??

  • john_hyatt
    14 years ago

    Stairs are looking goood. Not to worry about the weathering garapa a light oxalic wash will bring it right back with a little scrub work done by the child labor.
    J.

  • weedyacres
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    Not a lot of progress in the last week, as I went out of town for a wedding. Mr. Weedy and his dad ended up cutting a couple days off their trip to get back to Iowa because grandma was fading fast. So no side trip to OK this time to meet the famous Jon Mon in person. :-(

    Anyway, we're back from wedding and funeral and have 3 days before we go east to help one sister put a bathroom in her basement and paint another one's house. So today I finished up the big flight of stairs.


    The decking is kind-of squeaky, presumably because all the expanding and contracting from the rain/sun. So Mr. Weedy tightened up all the screws that aren't yet plugged. I guess that's what using Liquid Nails under the decking helps prevent? I've done that on the stairs and they feel very solid, so I'm sold on that technique for the next deck, should there be one.

    Our goal is to finish the plugging tomorrow and the wood part of the railings on Saturday. There are two of us, so it should go faster than my solo act the past 3 weeks. The staining will hopefully follow soon after we get back from my sisters'.

  • run53
    14 years ago

    Funny you should mention squeaky. I just finished screwing in my garapa decking and I found the same thing. They seemed ok when I first put them in. Now they are squeaky. Is this going to be an on-going problem since I didn't use any glue?

    Will tightening them up one time do the trick? Never had this problem with nails.

  • weedyacres
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    Well, we got the upper/lower railings in as planned, and I plugged till my fingers were raw, but still have some to go. Here's where we stand:

    It's hard to get a far-away shot of the whole deck because of the slope of our land. And I think the rails look rather fence-like personally. Black aluminum ballusters should help with that.

    Anyway, I read the directions on the Deckorators package after the railings were up and found that we put the rails 1" closer to each other than they need to be (ballusters will protrude). So we'll have to either lower the bottom rails or raise the upper ones by an inch. Grrr....

    We're off to the east coast, so won't have any deck progress to show for a couple weeks. If any of you feel like dropping by while we're away and putting up the pergola, feel free. :-)

  • john_hyatt
    14 years ago

    I am thinking you all are using the ballusters that fasten from the outside. One way to solve the height thing..install a 1'' strip on the top rail then a cap rail laying flat on the strip.

    Have a safe and good trip, garapa/twp shorts on the way mon or tues. J.

  • weedyacres
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    Boy, I have to say that this is pretty irritating that GW lost the final month's worth of posts on this project.

  • john_hyatt
    13 years ago

    O Man!!! thats just not right.

    It would be good to see that. Hope the Bike is runing good and you keep the paint up and the rubber down.

    JonMon

  • armada
    10 years ago

    Wow, i just got through reading this whole thread, and what a let down not to see the final result! I'm looking into Garapa for my deck and would love to know the weedy's impressions after living with it for a couple of years.

    And is East Teak and ABS still the best places online, or have other reputable suppliers entered the fold?

    -adam

  • weedyacres
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    armada:
    I can't recreate all the final month's detailed work, but here are a few photos.

    Staining: I did 2 coats of TWP dark oak. This photo shows no coats, one coat, and 2 coats.

    Final pics:

    I did have stain issues. My thread is linked below.

    Here is a link that might be useful: stain re-do

  • armada
    10 years ago

    thanks for the follow up. Hope the new stain has held up better for you.

    I need to find some pictures of grayed garapa to see if I like it. Part of my desire to go Garapa/IPE is less maintenance, which gets thrown out the window if I have to keep staining it :)

    -adam

  • PRO
    Windows on Washington Ltd
    10 years ago

    Love it.

    Great picture thread and updates.

Sponsored
Maruca Design / Build
Average rating: 4.8 out of 5 stars20 Reviews
Exceptional Residential Design and Remodeling Services in Fairfax