What porch flooring do you recommend?

[TuckerTavern]

The front porch, 6'x48', was absolutely rotten when we bought the house. We replaced enough flooring so that we can use the front door, but the rest of the porch is still unfinished. What we had bought was treated 5/4 boards, but they warped crooked, leaving uneven gaps and they're checking at the end, a total waste of money. What would be more appropriate AND cost effective? The porch dates to the most recent modernization in 1850-1860.

[Mick_VT]

Ipe or Black Locust are an excellent choice for steps and decks. Personally I would choose the latter as Ipe is a rainforest wood and very environmentally damaging when removed. Black Locust is native to the US.

Black Locust can be alittle hard to find, but there are suppliers around. This article might be of interest:

http://extension.psu.edu/natural-resour ... ocust-deck

[CS in Low Hud]

Coincidentally, there is an article in this months Old House Journal called Porch Flooring VS Decking. This is actually a big peeve of mine, so I was happy to see the article. They explained pretty carefully why tongue-in-groove porch flooring should be used on an original porch and NOT deck boards with gaps between the boards.

Regarding materials, they suggest vertical grain (quarter sawn) Douglas fir or Philippine mahogany (which brings you to the same ethical quandary as Ipe). They do mention "other rot-resistant wood species" and say to avoid yellow pine. For what it's worth, my porch floor is Doug Fir, and is 90 years old this year with no signs of rot. My porch steps I made out of Ipe, and are holding up great after 10 years.

As a side note, the posts under my porch are 90 year old locust with the bark on, and were probably cut on site. I had to replace one, but the other three are still in pretty good shape. Of course, with a tongue-in-groove floor above, the water is kept well clear of them, for the most part.

Locust is the farmer-preferred fence post (at least out in south western PA where I grew up). When I was 12 or 13, I helped my father fence a couple of pastures with locust posts. Many of them are still going strong after almost 40 years, and those are in full weather exposure, of course. I've never seen milled tongue-in-groove locust flooring, as Mike mentions, but I bet it would be great as a porch floor!

Chris

[1850Farmer]

A good non-wood option would be AZEK's Porch flooring. I've installed it on my in-laws wrap around porch about 7 years ago & they love it. The surface and interlocking tongue and groove connection looks like old wood style porch flooring but with none of the typical wood issues. Plus no painting or finishing...ever, which helps offset some of the up front cost.

[Casey]

T&G Ipe for a covered porch is overkill, IMO. A nice floor can be african mahogany in a 1" thickness. If you want to use 3/4" that's OK too. The cost savings over Ipe is phenomenal. For best results, backprime everything, use stainless fasteners.
Porch floors had a hierarchy as well; I have seen back/service porches floored with non-t&g material; in this case it was rough-sawn 1" white oak, with some walnut and other woods mixed in. It was probably ca. 1920 replacements of whatever was there in the original 1845 structure. The rough, non-t&g is obviously a less formal choice, but this house did not have any front porches, just a double-decker side porch (in Virginia).
Casey

[Al F. Furnituremaker]

FYI: What is sold as African and/or Philippine Mahogany may not even be in the Mahogany family, but something that looks similar. Various species are sold as these (Sapele being one), and some are garbage trees. Philippine "Mahogany" is the lowest cost and quality (Luan is an example of this). Sometimes a wholesaler doesn't even know what species they are getting when they ask for African of Philippine Mahogany.

[Wackyshack]

Love this conversation and information about wood grades. We go stuck with a porch that is pressure treated spaced lumber. I would love to do a T&G proper porch floor over one day as I detest the crap that house flipper installed.

[maxhall1023]

Another good choice is Batu (this is a Brazilian hardwood that resembles mahogany, slightly softer than IPE and about 60% of the price). I used this for my new porch stairs that I built and I'm very satisfied with the color of the wood. As far as being environmentally friendly, you can buy from sources that are FSC certified.

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1053&start=10

[Casey]

The hardwood yard is pushing Sapele over mahogany, but they have both. Sapele seems to be the heavier/denser material.
We also did one porch floor with what I believe was Amendoim; I was skeptical, but we laid it; I have no idea how it has fared.
If you work with t&g Ipe, be advised, it must be hand-nailed, and every nail hole pre-drilled, because it is too hard to nail with a flooring nailer, and driving nails w/o pre-drilling will result in a bent nail or a split tongue, or both. 3/4" Ipe is strong enough to lay on 24" O.C. framing, so you would save a tiny bit there, but nowhere close to the very high cost.

[TuckerTavern]

The estimate for the ipe is over $4000 so...... that's out. It seems that every affordable option is poor quality and every quality option is unaffordable.