What wood are Y'all using for decking? Pressure treated spruce? hardwood? The trailer i bought needs to be re decked and im not sure what to use.
mine was untreated pine. it weights less, is cheap and plenty strong. its soft so it does get beat up, but it is also less slip resistant. Grant
Mine came with pressure treated pine. But it now looks like crap after 7 years in the AZ sun. Looking back, I'm wondering if it would have done better if I had "sealed" it using Thompson or something. <shrug> Mines still plenty strong, but looks like crap.
We are in the process of decking 5 trailers at work. We bought 4 old 32' beet box trailers we pulled the boxes off and decking into flatbed and another 44'er that just needed a new deck . The 32'ers we are decking with pine. It cost $900 for enough to do 3 and a half of them and the deck is pretty easy to dent and scratch. The 44'er we decked with bambo... $$$$$$$. Cost $3,000 to do the 1 trailer alone but you can hit it with a hammer and not hardly leave a mark. The oil field guys deck their stuff with bambo and even dragging stuff on and off it holds up. Very expense and very heavy, it is made out of lots of thin slats all pressed and glued together. The 25' length planks you can hold up each end about 4' off the ground and the middle is still touching. We have also decked with apitong and it is really hard and heave and costly but I don't know the cost of the last one. Hope that gives you some insight.
I wouldn't use Thompsons ever, on any type of project. Spend a little more on Cuprinol. Yes, it will help with the sun damage and drying out. You'll usually have to re-apply any of those products at least every 2 years, if not yearly. An old mechanic buddy of mine swore by putting motor oil on them and then rubbing sand into the planks (to take up the excess oil). I never tried it, but it makes sense considering all the oily spots on my trailer repel the water quickly and aren't nearly as dry/cracking. I carry way too much furniture and wood that could easily be stained, so I'm not gonna use anything beyond regular treated pine.
We used rough sawn red oak planks from a local sawmill. The last deck was done with red oak and lasted 17 years.
