I have a wall around a deck that needs to be capped. There already is a layer of some weatherproof material down, but it can’t take the sun or wear. A roofing guy was going to put a sheetmetal cap. I thought I could put on a wood cap myself, using either redwood or ipe. But someone told me that wood was a bad idea because of the incursions from the screws and because the movement of wood would open the joints allowing water. I thought I could seals the screw holes and caulk the joints to allow for movement. Now I don’t know what to do, hire the roofer or do it myself. And if I can use wood, which one?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Replies
I vote for hiring the roofer and going with metal. The objections you have heard about wood are all valid. Without more details, that is as far as I want to go.
Bill
I capped my deck rails with 1x6 Trex and have been real happy with the results.
Bruce
Between the mountains and the desert ...
You can get a shaped ipe rail cap that is quite perfect. I have used a design that allows connection from the bottom, eliminating the screw holes.
Ipe's vastly superior hardness gives it a real feel of quality when leaning on it as a rail cap.
Advocate
Any chance of a picture? How wide is the wall? What siding material is on the wall? Style of the house? All these and more would help in providing opinions, but the most important opinion, is yours (or your wife's, if this is your own place.)
My preference is for wood. I like the feel and look of wood, it conveys an elegance that metal cannot achieve, although metal may be the answer in some conditions. Which is why more info would be nice.
"I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul." Invictus, by Henley.
Thanks everyone. Here are a few more details. This wall surrounds a concrete deck that is on top of my garage. garage detached from home. The garage has 5/8" exterior plywood siding, painted on the exterior sides and with some kind of weather treatment on the inside walls. The wall varies in width from 4 15/16" wide to 5 3/8" wide at other points. (I think the variation in width is another factor that favors wood.)
I had though of two possible designs for the wood caps - using dado blade on TS to groove the cap @3/4" or simple cap with 1 1/2" molding butting up to it.
Forrest Girl told me the dimensional movement of ipe is significantly greater than of redwood.