IPE deck


Ipe shining in the sun

  If you are in the construction trades there are projects and there are PROJECTS. For a few reasons I have to say I am pretty happy that this project came along when it did. It broke the bland of the last few projects. Commercial work is great for consistency but leaves some things lacking. I started this project in march of 2017 and one thing grew to another, before we knew it the deck was added to the list. This home has a spectacular view, and immaculate landscaping. The home owner wanted to finish off the last piece of the puzzle and have a worry free area to entertain.   


before old pt
before old pt



The deck was pressure treated with the normal railing for the area and it was at the end of its usable life span, splintering was becoming an issue, between smaller children and pets this was going to start to become unacceptable. Several materials were purposed, from trex to thermally modified ash, some long discussions were had, pros and cons weighted in the end Ipe was chosen,



newly rebuilt stairs


    Ipe is tropical hardwood, extremely dense and incredibly hard it noticeably wears down sharp tools and bits. With a crisp sharp blade the cut edge will cut slice skin and the splinters are rather annoying. but its absolutely stunning. I said earlier this couldn't have come along at a better time for me. I was a bit burnt out to be honest. I had just wrapped up a over a year at a chemical company redoing labs and spaces for them. It was a great environment the people we worked hand in hand with were awesome but it was an hour and half drive each way. And trying to balance that and still have a live when you you leave at 6am and dont see your house till 7pm can wear you down easily. I was fried, tired and burnt out, there was so no drive or inspiration. This project was one that reminding me what I enjoy about this job, there is always a joy to updating a space, but when you get to use some amazing materials and the clients have some amazing vision its a great thing. the outdoor space that they envisioned and we were able to bring to life was great. and hearing that its better than imagined is damn nice as well.
you can see we tried to keep any pattern out of the cuts and keep them spaced apart as much as possible


    So lets talk shop a bit on this deck. Total 4 sets of steps, 2 smaller, 1 circular and 1 decent run. we preoiled all the boards and I pulled the more interesting ones for the stairs, any with heavy figure or really interesting grain, these would have gotten lost in the deck field so i wanted to highlight them. these were all full 16' so minimizing waste as well as spacing cuts to break up the look was important I cant stand when it looks like a roofer installed things. looks great for shingles not so much for anything else. Every place two boards butted together I cut a slight 45s on the edge to make sure that as the deck aged splinters and edges would be minimized it also cleaned the look up nicely. The deck was pretty simple hidden clips in the side screwed down to each joist. all the joists taped with gtape protective flashing since the framing was original and the ipe has a long lifespan. 
lighting doing it thing, the leds really throw a nice light
the pavillion area starting to take shape in the back ground 
Next post We get into the pavillion area I might have to take a trip out to the property and get some pictures seems like im missing a few of the ones I thought I had.









Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
Lets kick this off with something kinda of fun, I do a lot of work for a local industrial park, and they had cut up a cherry tree. I grabbed a few chunks of it and dropped them off at the shop no real plan for them at the time but the ones I grabbed were going to have some nice figure so away they went. So they sat in the shop for a while to dry until i saw a stool in fine wood working by Alan Turner, who is actually close by and teaches at the philly furniture workshop. So up until this point I have rebuilt chairs of all kinds, but never one all the way.       So now I wanted a shop stool. Not just any shop stool. But one that when people come to the shop it throws them a bit off. Its a shop. things get knocked over, spilled, sometimes there is fire, its not a safer environment for things to stay in.  So why spend the time and effort of something that is nice when chances are it going to get some abuse (i stopped counting how many times ive knocked it over) why not. I makes me smil
Read more

spanish cedar outdoor bench,

Image
          So ive set this goal of one project a month in the shop that has zero to do with my day to day work, I have next months in my head and hopefully i can fit it in a month time frame but wont be upset if it doesnt,    As the weather grew warmer last month I wanted to do an outdoor project and as there is a ton of spanish cedar in the shop I figured that was a good plan. So i started thumbing through my collection of magazine, books and catalogs. I found a bench featured in a book from fine woodworking and that looks like a good start,           recently things have changed alot and the changes will continue the shop was something I loved and my time there was my break from everything else. A good bit of the the things in the shop are things i have added over the past years, and a larger portion has been building since i was a child by my father and things from my grandfather, The shop was my only real anchor to this area, and to move away meant that i would lose all of that an
Read more