Installing tongue and groove porch flooring for the first time cannot be very safe. A little bit of research and practice may make the procedure much more straightforward. You’ll notice that it’s not a challenging task at all.
The initial step is to get rid of the current porch flooring. The best time to check the basement, the joists, the ledger board, and the rim boards is now. You can tell if the ledger board needs to be replaced by exposing it. Your ledger board is probably in fine shape if it was correctly flashed.
Next, examine your joists for signs of disintegration, such as wood rot. If they need to be replaced, do so. Make sure any stonework is secure and not leaning. A stone mason’s skills may be required for repair work. Replacing the porch boards if the frame was deteriorating would be a waste of money. Verify that the framework of your porch can support new flooring.
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Wrap-around porches necessitate special consideration when laying flooring due to the presence of a corner or corners. The corners of porch boards are typically mitered to prevent splintering. If you want them to look more polished, you can miter them against a diagonal board. This gives the flooring a sharp appearance with no effort.
Run a board diagonally from one corner of the house to the other for wraparound porches. To accommodate the ends of the floorboards, you might need to install extra blocking along the length of the board. Trim the ends of the floorboards so they intersect neatly with the diagonal board. Instead of using toenails to secure the boards, blocking an inch wide will allow you to fasten the boards directly into the blocking. When boards for your porch flooring shrink over time, this solution prevents the dreaded split end.
The rim board might need to be changed, so let’s move on to that. Rim boards constantly need maintenance and upkeep due to the elements they are constantly exposed to. Rim joists can also be protected with cellular PVC covers, which can be purchased separately.
Find out how much overhang you’ll need; typically, it’s around an inch. Consider the inch plus the width of the rim board to provide a uniform overhang. A rim board cover could increase the distance by over three-quarters of an inch. The length of your rim board can be found by adding an inch to its width.
Make a Roof Overhang
Two standard techniques for mounting the boards are used to get the desired overhang.
A string can be positioned one inch from the rim board’s edge. Reduce the distance between the string and the porch boards. Take utmost caution. The overhang could be affected if the string is bowed even a little.
The boards can be installed a bit longer than necessary, the overhang line marked and then cut using a circular saw. The best approach is this one. Hold the saw steady with a straight edge while you work. If you cut a board too short, you’ll have to throw it away and start over.
Managing the Transition
Putting boards under a threshold is standard practice and cannot be avoided. If you’re lucky, the thickness of the new porch boards should match that of the old ones. However, that’s not how it generally works. Simply notch out the top edge of the new board to a depth where it slides beneath the threshold if the boards are of different thicknesses. The threshold and door frame won’t have to be removed and re-adjusted.
Fixing a Porch That Isn’t Square
If your porch isn’t quite square, add boards to align it.
The tricky part is figuring out exactly how far out of the square. The number of porch planks needed can then be determined.
To make your porch boards seem straight, you can now tweak each individually (a process known as “cheating the boards”). Fanning the boards as you go is a common way to compensate for the deficit. However, there are situations in which there is excessive variety. In most circumstances, it is preferable to compensate for part of the discrepancy rather than the entire gap.
Put the first board in place groove-side up against the open end of the porch or an exterior wall. The groove can be ripped out, and the new edge rounded off with a round-over bit, as shown.
Each new board can be fastened in place by sliding its groove into the tongue of the board below it. The tongue should be secured with external screws or stainless steel screws driven at an angle. To prevent the screw head from blocking the following board, bury it at least 3/16 of an inch.
Once you understand the process, installing tongue and groove porch flooring is a breeze.
Visit Mary’s webpage for information on how to lay the groundwork for porch flooring.
Mary Morris helped create Front Porch Ideas and More, a porch planning, construction, and furnishing resource. Find out what you need to know about porch flooring edging boards.
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