Category Archives: Tigerwood

Best Decking for 2021

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Tigerwood Decking
Tigerwood Decking

In 2021 as homeowners are still reluctant to travel many are in search of the best decking to build their own backyard oasis.

Most homeowners are familiar with the usual decking materials such as pressure treated pine decking, cedar and composite products.

The demand for some of these products has increased greatly due to many homeowners still stuck at home wanting to expand their outdoor living space.

Some of these decking options like pressure treated pine, cedar or redwood decking are softwoods.

Softwoods can look beautiful and last many years but they do typically require annual maintenance to prevent premature rot and decay.

Many homeowners don’t like the thought of maintenance and believe that composite products are “No Maintenance”.

The reality is some of these composite manufacturers years ago advertised their products as “No Maintenance”, homeowners painfully realized this was far from true.

Many homeowners quickly experienced their “No Maintenance” decks would grow mold so fast that many had to power wash their decks almost weekly.

We’ve yet to find a composite product that homeowners haven’t experienced issues with so as of now we don’t recommend or sell any.

If this is an option you want to pursue we strongly suggest doing some google searches for the “brand + complaints and problems” to see what homeowners have experienced.

Top Decking Options for 2021

Our top decking that we usually recommend is Ipe wood but that is the most expensive due to its proven durability, beauty, longevity and demand.

  • Ipe Wood Deck
    Ipe wood deck

Ipe wood is a South American hardwood known to last up to 75 years on commercial applications like the Coney Island boardwalk with no chemical treatments.

Our overall top pick for decking in 2021 when durability and price are a concern is Tigerwood decking.

Imported from South America Tigerwood is another exceptionally beautiful hardwood deck option that is known to last 30+ years.

  • Tigerwood deck
  • Tigerwood Hardwood Deck
  • Tigerwood Deck
  • Tigerwood Decking
    Tigerwood Decking
  • Tigerwood deck
    Tigerwood deck with Cumaru Railing

Top 5 Best Decking Materials

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If you are looking to build a new deck on your house, there are 5 different decking material options you need to consider.

These top five decking options are all natural hardwoods from South America that are more durable than Teak and much more affordable as well.

Our number one recommended decking material is:

Ipe Wood Decking

Ipe Wood Deck
Ipe Wood Deck

Ipe (pronounced EE-pay) is an all natural hardwood that is more than three times harder than teak. It has shown to last up to 75 years or more on many commercial applications such as the Coney Island boardwalk and the Brooklyn bridge.

This hardwood is one of the strongest woods in the world and naturally resists wood boring insects. It also does not splinter and will not get incredibly hot on your feet like plastic decking.

In addition it’s also naturally slip resistant, has a Class A rating for flame spread, is scratch resistant and naturally mold and fungi resistant. As you can see from the picture above Ipe wood is incredibly beautiful as well.

Ipe wood is our number one recommended decking material. It’s competitively priced against most composite decking materials if not cheaper. Ipe Wood Prices

Watch this short video to learn more about our Ipe wood decking:

Our second recommended decking material is:

Cumaru Wood Decking

Cumaru Deck

Similar to Ipe Cumaru decking is nearly identical in terms of properties and durability. The main difference is the color color ranges from a golden tan to a reddish brown.

You can still expect all the same excellent properties as Ipe.

This excellent decking is also low maintenance, resistant to wood boring insects and naturally resistant to rot and decay without chemicals.

One other benefit to using Cumaru is the price can be upwards of 40 percent cheaper compared to the price of Ipe wood. You can view the current Cumaru wood prices here: Cumaru Decking Prices

Watch this short video to learn about our Cumaru wood decking:

Our third recommended decking material is:

Tigerwood decking

Tigerwood Deck

This beautiful wood also comes from South America and is incredibly durable and beautiful. You can expect a 30+ year lifespan with Tigerwood.

Similar to the other woods we listed above Tigerwood is also resistant to wood boring insects, mold and mildew and does not splinter. This is another excellent low maintenance deck material.

Watch this video to learn more about our Tigerwood decking:

Tigerwood Decking California

Tigerwood Decking Prices

The fourth decking material we recommend is:

Garapa Decking

Garapa is harder than teak and is made for the outdoors.

Also known as Brazilian Ash this incredible hardwood decking material is one of the finest quality hardwoods available that features a fine-grain that is light yellow to a warm golden hue.

Garapa is naturally resistant to rot, decay and insect attack and offers a 30+ year lifespan.

Watch this video on Garapa decking:

You can find more info and pricing here: Garapa decking prices

Last but not least our fifth decking we recommend to our customers is:

Massaranduba decking

Also known as Brazilian Redwood Massaranduba is much more durable than California Redwood, has a longer lifespan and requires much less maintenance.

In fact Massaranduba is over 7x harder than California Redwood. With a janka hardness of 3,190 compared to California Redwood which has a janka hardness of 420.

California Redwood is a softwood and requires annual maintenance of applying a water sealer to keep water out of the grain of the wood to prolong its life and prevent rot and decay.

Just like the first four species of hardwood decking that we recommended, Massaranduba naturally resists rot, decay and wood boring insects.

In addition Massaranduba is also a very low maintenance deck material and offers a 30+ year lifespan.

Watch this short video on Massaranduba decking:

Current Massaranduba decking prices

How To Cover an Old Stucco Ceiling

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One of our great customers Pro Quality Carpentry completed this job and had to share how beautiful it turned out.

nickel gap ceiling

The previous ceiling of this screened in lanai was old stucco that was looking dingy and had cracks. The home owner hired Pro Quality Carpentry to renovate their outdoor space and make it look more appealing.

Pro Quality recommended our Tigerwood in a nickel gap tongue and groove profile that we custom milled for them.  Tigerwood is an exotic hardwood that’s incredibly durable as well as exceptionally beautiful.

Tigerwood is naturally resistant to rot and decay and offers a 30+ year lifespan without chemical treatment.

The Install Process Was Simple

First Pro Quality Carpentry started by installing wood furring strips to the existing stucco ceiling and made sure to attach the furring strips to the wood support trusses underneath the stucco.

Next they installed our Tigerwood nickel gap tongue and groove and fastened to the furring strips with stainless steel screws through the tongue to leave the ceiling free of faster holes.

Here’s Another Picture

Tigerwood nickel gap

 

Cedar Decking vs Tigerwood Decking

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Read This Before Installing Cedar Decking on Your House!

One of our customers just installed this Tigerwood deck for his clients who previously had a cedar deck. Their cedar deck was installed for a little over 20 years and required constant maintenance with power washing and sealing with a waterproofing sealer.

Although cedar has moderate rot resistance it is still a softwood that requires a waterproofing sealer especially on horizontal surfaces like a deck where the water sits on the surface longer. Tigerwood decking and other South American hardwoods offer a much longer lifespan, so the contractor advised the homeowner this would be a better option than going with cedar again.

Western red cedar has a janka hardness of 350 lbf opposed to Tigerwood which has a janka hardness of 2,170 lbf. To put it simply the janka test is a measuring system to determine the hardness of wood and the higher the number the harder the wood.

The hardness of Tigerwood gives the wood a very tight and dense grain structure which makes the wood very smooth. It also has excellent resistance to rot and decay as well as being highly resistant to wood boring insects. Tigerwood is so hard that wood boring insects can not chew through it. Opposed to cedar on the other hand which has shown to be somewhat prone to wood boring insects.

Cedar usually contains knots and a rough surface with slivers due to it being a softwood the grain is more prone to surface imperfections that make it less desirable to walk on barefoot. You can sand cedar to help with this however as time goes on the grain can raise again and slivers and splits can reappear.

Clear cedar is available at a premium which does not contain knots and will give you a more desirable surface than common grade cedar.

Tigerwood on the other hand offers a very smooth surface free from knots and slivers and is naturally resistant to rot, decay and wood boring insects. In addition the maintenance on Tigerwood is significantly less than cedar.

Cedar Deck Maintenance

Cedar decks need a waterproofing sealer which will eventually peel off leaving you with sanding or power washing the old coating off. Then you must reapply at least two coats of new sealer to ensure everything is coated.

Tigerwood Deck Maintenance

With Tigerwood if you want to maintain the beautiful color you simply oil it with a UV oil meant for hardwoods such as Ipe Oil. This basically keeps the sun from bleaching the color out of the wood and turning it grey.

The oil is very easy to apply you can roll it on with a paint roller and wipe up any excess that hasn’t soaked in after 5 minutes. As the color starts to fade make sure your deck is clean and free from debris and reapply.

There is no stripping off the old finish or any flaking or peeling to deal with. If you prefer the grey look you don’t have to do anything other than cleaning debris such as leaves off.

cedar deck vs tigerwood

The contractor surprised his customers with this detail that they absolutely loved. He laser engraved their last initial in the center trim piece of the deck.