Cherry Deck

[Magicman]

In about 2003, I build a deck out of fresh felled Black Cherry.  I simply had more Cherry lumber than I had $$$ so that is just the way it was.  Thinking that surely it would shrink, I did not leave any space between the decking boards.  Well the "cracks" never developed so moisture was always a problem.  Not only from above, but also condensation from below.


 
Here it is in it's "glory" days.


 
I am now replacing the rotting decking with PT SYP decking lumber.


 
One board at the time.  The rails are solid so they can stay.

[jdtuttle]

You can bet the PT will shrink  ;D
jim

[Stephen1]

Oh yes the PT will shrink. No need to use spacers on those boards. I am surprised at the cherry though. Was it air dried at all or put up completely green?

[Magicman]

Stephen1, the Cherry was fresh off of the tree, no more than a couple of weeks.  I was later told that the old timers used either Cherry or Sycamore for their trim work because of the minimum shrinkage.  I guess that it is so hard that there is nowhere for it to go.  There are certainly no open voids within the wood.

Yup, the PT SYP will certainly shrink and I fully expect a ¼" to develop between the boards.  Of course I expected that with the Cherry also.   :-\

Right now, it's break time cause that sun is hot.  I made a big old glass of LOGDOG's Spark & Rehydrate.

[hackberry jake]

I wonder how long it would have lasted if it were dried first, and gaps installed. I hear local farmers talk about seasoning fence posts to make them last longer. You know once they put them in the ground they just reabsorb that moisture, but they say it makes a difference.

[T Welsh]

Cherry does not like water, If its kept dry its OK,but it will just not hold up to mother nature that well. Magic, you sound like me,I built a simple work bench in the garage out of Walnut. one of my buddies told me I was nuts. wasting all that valuable lumber for a simple bench. I have more Walnut than I can shake a stick at. ;D. Tim

[Magicman]

Yup, that was kinda my answer.  It was my Cherry and my deck but I wish that it had been Black Locust.

Back to the problem, I suspect that if I had spaced the boards out they would have lasted much longer.  Actually they rotted from the underside.  The rails and post are still solid.

The deck is actually three different levels and I finished one of them this afternoon.

[Magicman]

No work today because everything is WET.  Just a wall of water out there.   

[Okrafarmer]

Magic, how thick was your decking? Is any of it salvageable by planing?

[Magicman]

It was sawed 1".  One side was planed and V Grooved so the final was about 7/8".  It is no good, but more Cherry is no problem.  Matter of fact, if I had bucked those last Cherry logs to 12' instead of 10', I would have re-decked it with Cherry, except I would have left about ¼" between boards.

[Okrafarmer]

 :-\  Good cherry is hard to come by here. Bad cherry we have in whacks. Good cherry here and there.

[WDH]

It is hard to get here.  I sell very little as I keep most of any that I can get.  I love working with it. 

MM, once it turned gray I bet that the fact that it was cherry was not evident to most people.

[Magicman]

Correct Danny.  Weathered Cherry is darker than any of the Oaks, or anything else that I know of, but very few folks would actually know the species.

I have sawed some very good Cherry, but there were also bad ones.  Cherry was not harvested by loggers for many years because there really was not a market for it.  As a result, there are some good ones scattered about on some privately owned land tracts.

My largest "Cherry only" saw job was 4600 bf and the next was 2460 bf.  Both of those had some eye popping lumber and both were for wall paneling.

[Okrafarmer]

The big purchasing mills don't pay much for cherry around here. The most I could hope to get around here is about $200 / k for cherry logs. But if you go to buy the lumber, you're going to pay through the nose for it. They typically go for pallet or pulp.

[Magicman]

Yup, Cherry, Poplar, Walnut, Pecan, Elm, and Hickory all go into the junk category here when selling timber.  Really, if it is not Red Oak, it is classified as 

[Okrafarmer]

Around here the desirables are red oak, white oak, yellow poplar, ash (which is rare), and yellow pine. All else is  :-\

But there is significant local grass-roots consumer demand for ambrosia maple, walnut, red cedar, bald cypress, and cherry.

[WDH]

Not enough cherry or walnut around here to make a market.  Red oak is king.

[tyb525]

20 years ago the loggers did me a favor and harvested only the red and white oak, and left all the walnut, cherry, etc ;)

[WDH]

Looks like they low-graded your stand  :D.

[Magicman]

Yup, the species that I mentioned in Reply #14 just went as pulpwood.  The last harvest in 2005 was the first time that I ever remember Hickories being taken out.  I was told that they were being shipped in "C Cans" to Germany or somewhere.

[T Welsh]

You guys need to come to the east coast. the market for Cherry is quite good,average price is 0.50 to 0.65 BF. with veneer going out the door at 2.00 to 2.50 BF. Tim

[Okrafarmer]

Well it is true that your Pennsylvania cherry is better quality than ours.  :-\

[WDH]

That is true, but ours has some nice swirly grain and some of the mineral streaks and pitch streaks make it beautiful in my opinion.  Not just your vanilla variety, although I like vanilla a lot.

[Magicman]

Kinda like this.   


 

[Okrafarmer]

Yep. That resembles my cherry I mill here. Boy does it warp, though!

[WDH]

MM,

Yours is mineral streaked, ptichy, and curly.  That is a trifecta.  I would be more desirable to most woodworkers if it was only curly, but I like it just the way it is.

You see the same thing in the top of this file cabinet.