In truth, the answer is very simple. Lay deck boards so that the best-looking face is facing up! Wood is stable when its moisture content is held above 30%(fiber saturation point).

Which side of deck board should face up?

A board that is correctly installed right side up (or bark side down) will form a crown and allow water to run off the edges. If the board is installed wrong side up (or bark side up) it will curve up on the edges when dry and water can gather and sit in the cup. That is a recipe for wood rot and problems.

Does it matter which way decking boards run?





Decking needs to slope away from the house or be gapped to prevent water from running into the house from the deck. But a level deck or one slightly sloped towards the house with decking perpendicular to the house the rain can run the length of the decking to the house even if the boards are gapped.

Do deck boards have a top and bottom?

The wood on the top of each board is exposed to more moisture than the wood on the bottom. As a result, the wood fibers on the top side expand more than the fibers on the bottom. This creates dimensional changes in the wood. Wood warps in the opposite orientation of the growth rings.

When installing deck boards crown up or down?

Crown up is the preferred installation method, despite the potential for bark side down deck boards to experience shelling. Bark side down allows for the formation of a crown warp. Once the board forms a crown, there’s less potential for the wood to hold water, which could lead to the wood splintering and rotting.

How should decking boards be laid?

What is the correct way to lay decking? Any decking board manufacturer or professional will tell you: “The proper way to install a decking board is ridge side down.” The ridges are designed to allow for airflow, to stop moisture sitting in the ridge, and allow for a stronger structure.

Why do decking boards have grooves?





The grooves are meant to allow air to flow underneath the deck. This decreases the buildup of moisture. When there is less moisture, your deck is less likely to have a mould build-up. Mould and moisture are two factors that seriously affect the longevity of timber decking.

Which way does the crown of a board need to go?

Quote from the video:
Quote from Youtube video: All the way down the board and as I put my eye and look at it I can clearly see that there is a very slight hump. This way in other words.

Which way should the Crown be facing?

Quote from the video:
Quote from Youtube video: Either this way or this way whichever way the tree naturally wanted to live its life and sorry tree but now you're a board. So.

How do you know which way a board will cup?

And lucky (or is it unlucky?) for us, you can pretty much predict which way the board will cup simply by looking at the orientation of the end-grain. As you can see in the drawing to the right, the wood typically cups away from what would be the center of the tree, or in the opposite direction of the growth rings.

Which way do boards bow?



Types of Warping



Uneven drying can make the edges or ends of a board curl up or bend sideways. Cupping occurs when the edges curl toward each other, and bowing occurs when the ends curl upward.

What is cupping on deck boards?

The Cause of Deck board Cupping is uneven moisture content from one side of the deck board to the other. If while looking at the end view of a decking board, the board is bent into a slight “U” shape, you are observing “cupping”.

What way should wood grain go?

Quote from the video:
Quote from Youtube video: But if you go backwards you start to get fibers that come apart. And that's why you get tear out now if we look at this board here you can see these are the growth rings. So when you're cutting.

How do you know which way the grain runs?



Hold the board with stripes on the edge traveling left to right from the edge center towards the face of the board. The stripes form into a point as they meet the face. The stripe points show the direction of the wood grain, from left to right.

Which direction is wood grain strongest?

direction parallel to grain

Wood is strongest in the direction parallel to grain. Because of this, the strength and stiffness properties of wood structural panels are greater in the direction parallel to the strength axis than perpendicular to it (see Figure 1).

What does against the grain mean wood?

(woodworking, of sanding or planing a piece of wood) Preventing a smooth, level surface from being formed by raising the nap of the wood or causing larger splinters to form ahead of the cutting tool below the cutting surface.

Do you cut wood on the line?



In most cases, we recommend cutting to the outside of the line. You can always take more wood off, but you can’t get it back once you’ve started your cut. The saw blade should move just along the side of the line. If you cut to the pencil line, the thickness of your blade might take off more material than you expected.

How can you tell an open grain from a closed grain?

Open-grained and close-grained wood refers to the size of the pores; woods with large visible pores are ‘open-grain’, and those with pores too small to see clearly are ‘closed-grain’. When the wood’s sawn, large pores can split and this will decide whether timber needs a filler to achieve a smoother finish.