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Building the Backyard Deck

Bob in the backyard of the Medford restoration project where Charlie and Matt are finishing up the picture framing for the mahogany deck. The mahogany will be left unfinished—allowing it weather and take on a beautiful silvery sheen. The first nail goes in about an inch from the edge at one end, then one at the other end, and then every 16" in between. The end piece is brought in at the miter and nailed. Charlie is working with mahogany in an assortment of lengths—20s to 6s. Charlie prefers to space his joints at least 32 inches apart staggering them by at least two bays. He uses 16-penny spikes as spacers between the boards as well as between the butt ends of the boards and the picture frame. He's using 2 1/2-inch stainless steel annular ring nails. To avoid putting dimples into the mahogany, he doesn't hammer them all the way in but leaves them just on the surface and then uses a nail set to drive them home. Charlie believes that sometimes it's best to predrill at the butt end of board rather than risk splitting the wood by driving a nail that's close to end. More information