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“Meanwhile there’s a 2-3 year waiting list to get a house built in N. Idaho due to a shortage of builders.”

We were # 7 on our contractors list; could not get good hourelp!go

My wife and I attended a get to know your new light bulbs and fixtures in 2020 in California at our local hardware store.

One of the ladies there had lost her home in the fires two years ago in California. There is such a shortage of building materials, she will finally be getting the cement to pour for her new foundation a week from now with the crew do the pouring and whatever is needed.

We didn’t have fire damage, but we needed 2 new skylights due to leaks. Last spring, our roofer and contractor placed orders with the 2 big hardware store and a smaller one. We finally got one from the small building supplier. We are on standby for the other one. If it comes, we or the roofer or contractor will buy it and store it until late spring summer.

Our back deck was rotting and our contractor ordered the redwood last after the fires, and we got a cancellation order from the local supplier and enough of his rationing for our front porch. The redwood for the back deck came here in August, and someone cancelled a small order and we got it for the front deck/porch in October.

Apparently, some of the fire victims are being told that they can’t replace their burnt up wooden decks with new wood decking. So they are cancelling their orders. Those of us without burnt decks apparently can replace old rotting ones.

One of our contractors has a brother in the independent trucking business, and they discussed going to Oregon, Nevada or Idaho to buy wood and other supplies and bring down here to resell it here after the fires.

They found out that was a basic zero inventory supply of materials needed to build or too repair homes or whatever in the other states. The good carpenters are down here working.

So they gave up on that plan.

Dave,

Instead of putting redwood on your deck, I would suggest IPA if you want to stick with wood. IPA(also known as Ironwood) is a South American hardwood. It will NEVER rot. It starts out as a brown color and turns to a dark grey eventually. However, it is the densest of all species of lumber in the world. It is even harder than Ebony. Therefore, it is extremely heavy. You also have to predrill every hole for the screws.

The other wood option is Cumaru. It is another SA hardwood that is impervious to rot. It is almost as dense as IPA. It is also available as a decking product throughout the world.

If you want to go with a composite(Trex type) I would suggest you use a capped composite decking. This is a product that has composite on the inside and a PVC wrapping around the outside.
The benefit of this product is that is does not shrink or swell in LENGTH like solid PVC. It is also cheaper than solid PVC. This is not the original composite type decking. The PVC cap has the color all the way through(about 3-4 mm).
It will not grow MOLD on the surface if you get a lot of rain in your area.

If you do not have a wide temperature swing in your area, then I would consider a solid PVC product. PVC tends to be the most expensive decking board. However, it is totally maintenance free. It will shrink in the winter. I have PVC fascia boards on my house here in NH. In January(0 degrees)there will be almost a 1/4” gap between boards on the front of my house(36’ overall length). I purposely installed these boards in mid summer when it was 80-90 degrees. I overlap the joints. That way they will shrink. IF you install PVC around here in the winter you have to allow for expansion or it will buckle.

The other benefit of composite/capped or all PVC is that they now have clips that go into a groove on the side edge of the decking. That way the decking is attached to the joists without a screw showing on the surface.
Another benefit of the composite are they can be bent around curved decks to some extent. So, you are not limited in construction to building with 90 degree angles.