Advantage Trim & Lumber now offers a quick, easy, and affordable way to find Ipe T&G. Now, buy tongue and groove ipe decking can be as easy as ordering a book from Amazon.com.
We have all the sizes you would need with the best prices:
Lengths from 3 to 20 feet are available. And, if you have a custom order, you can always contact us directly: 1-877-232-3915
We are planning to install a T&G Ipe deck on our covered porch. There is a basement under our porch so we want to make it as water resistant as possible. Can we put silicone on the tongue before we attach the next board to make the seams more water impervious? The deck is covered but not enclosed so does take on some rain water in heavy rains with high winds. we plan on installing plastic pull down shades for those occasions, but worry about the times when an unexpected storm comes up while we are away from home.
Gail,
The problem you are going to run in to is there is no true way to make this water tight. Silicone is not going to adhere to the Ipe as the material is too dense with an extremely high oil content. There are a few under mount drainage systems on the market that will drain any water that runs through the decking to a gutter system. The only problem with these systems is they severely cut down the amount of ventilation under the material. In turn if you would be looking to use one of these systems we would suggest using a 5/4×4 material. The 5/4×4 is going to be one of the most stable products you can use do to the low surface area of each board. I hope this helps please let me know if there is anything else we can do for you. Thank you for your time.