Ipe Hardwood 1

[epitome1170]

Has anyone ever worked with Ipe Hardwood and have design values for the lumber?

They are not in the AWC NDS, but I found some values in the Dept of Agriculture website, but these values need to be decreased and I am looking for an idea of by how much.

 

[a2mfk]

I would hope a tropical hardwood ripped out of the Amazon would not get you the same LEED points as a steel beam made of mostly recycled steel... Off topic. Get your point though, strong stuff!

I wonder if all this LEED stuff won't eventually lead (no pun intended) to using bamboo on a large scale in the US. I know we could grow a lot right here in Florida, stuff grows worse than weeds here...

 

[Cadair]

I'm not saying that doug-fir will do that. The forest product lab is saying that. What I'm saying is that their number and the number you use for designing are two completely different things. Theirs are average values, not the lowest 5% in quality. I don't know if they take into account load duration (they test the wood for a short duration, so the wood will act stronger, and needs to be reduced for "normal" duration). Plus the factor of safety.

Just looked at an older version of the Wood Handbook (dated March 1999) and it gave the same values for doug-fir. So unless they happened to make the same mistake for over a decade...

 

[JAE]

a2mfk - LEED and its more fanatical adherents will eventually leave us living in grass huts, barefoot, and praying to the sun.

 

[unclesyd]

You need to look at the Diamond Deck Site there is a little information in the form of a comparison, but essentially you will get all you need by looking at the installation section also.

I have 20' x 16' X 60' long deck made from Ipe, Brazilian Ironwood, The deck was built with 18" joist spacing, I was scared of the recommend 24" for the 3/4" boards.. The decking is anchored with Eb-Ty using 316 SS square drive screws with a 17 point. The Eb-Ty requires a biscuit slow which was cut with no problem. I tried to let the wood dry out a little more but the wife wouldn't have it. There are no fasteners visible on the deck. Using screws isn't a problem if you use 17 point.

There is one big caveat with the use of Ipe and that is you have to seal the cut ends with a wax emulsion type sealer. This is the same a they seal logs at many of the saw mills.

If you want to go with visible fasteners checkout Trimscrew. They slso sell the decking now.

When I constructed my deck the diamond people w ere quite helpful.

http://www.diamonddecking.com/compare.htm

http://www.ebty.com/

http://www.cepcotool.com/bowrench/

http://www.trimscrew.com/TRIM-SCREW.htm

 

[MikeHalloran]

I was on a boat that had exterior steps and the salon deck made of some exotic wood. I don't remember the name. I do remember it was almost black, and the sample I handled felt as dense as Bakelite.

I also remember the edges and corners of the steps were almost perfectly square and sharp, and the finish was as smooth and slippery as glass. Two bad ideas if your feet are wet...



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[Brad805]

Mike, those square corners are the result of the woodworker not easing the corners. That boat builder should have rounded the edges as these dense species create wicked splinters. Trust me, I have many scares in my hands from that. Standard deck parts go through a 6, 7 or 8 head moulder at the site. These moulders have cutters to ease all four edges of each part.

As for the finish, I am sure that finish was more about selling boats and less about safety. Many deck finsihes have components within to make them easier to walk on.

Brad

 

[MikeHalloran]

I'm sure the square corners and glossy finish were demanded by the owner.
The builder was named Perfection Yachts.
I think that particular boat, and that hyper-fussy owner, put them out of business, or at least induced them to change their business name.



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA