Moisture Questions, Brazilian Ipe Hardwood

[Frank Penello]

I am new to Sawmillcreek, Hello to you all!

If you please, I have a question you may relate too.

I have built a deck with the Brazilian hardwood, Ipe.
My design calls for a Railing featuring two mortise and tenon horizontal pieces between each vertical picket.
It looks amazing! To date I have 45,623 hours into the project.

The issue is that the work has taken over several seasons and the weather in the North East varies quite a bit.
I work in an unheated Garage and I am worried that moisture may affect the Fit of the Joints at the mortise and tenon when finally assembled and settles to outside humidity changes.

I know this wood has a lot of resin and may be more tolerant than other species are but think some of you may have some experience here.

Thanks,
Frank

[David DeCristoforo]

If your garage is not climate controlled, the MC of the wood should be more or less the same as it would be outside. But please... 45 and a half thousand hours? Is that for real? That's like eight hours a day, 365 days a year for fifteen years! This has got to be some kind of deck!

[Frank Penello]

Dave,
The 45,623 hours thing was an attempt at humor! Given the amount of time gone by since the start, It seems like forever. This is a difficult wood to work compounded by me being meticulous to a fault at times.

Per your comments about the the MC of the wood being more or less the same as it would be outside - is a very good point!
Thank you,
Frank

[David DeCristoforo]

"...45,623 hours thing was an attempt at humor..."

Well you never know. It took took like eleven years to build Louis XIV's desk (not deck) and that was with a whole bunch of people working on it.

[Mike Cutler]

Frank

I wouldn't worry too much about the Ipe. It's a pretty stable wood, and it sounds as if it has reached equilibrium with it's environment.
I hear ya' about the 45K+ hours. Some projects just seem to take on a life of their own.

[Steve knight]

ipe decking is usually on the wet side. so if it has been sitting it will dry slowly. if you buy new it will be at a higher mc and shrink. so it is best to do those joints with aged wood.

[Kelly C. Hanna]

Ipe decking is about the most stable wood on the planet. It not only doesn't shrink but the moisture content is very low. I've never seen a piece of Ipe move in the last 6 years building with it.

[Steve knight]

Ipe decking is about the most stable wood on the planet. It not only doesn't shrink but the moisture content is very low. I've never seen a piece of Ipe move in the last 6 years building with it.
every piece I have measured has not been dry. the decking if I wanted to build something out of it other then decking I would not use decking and use ipe lumber.

[Dewey Torres]

Wlecome to the Creek Frank.

Main rule is to post pics .... lots of them! Creeker love pics. You will get the help you need here and fast. Glad to have you and of course remember the pics~!:)

[Kelly C. Hanna]

What moisture content are you finding in your decking? Most Ipe we get has no moisture content to speak of....course I buy only the 1x sizes so that may be the reason.

[Allan Froehlich]

I built a table out of Ipe cutoffs.

Just realize that the deck lumber has a higher moisture content than the stuff at Rockler. It WILL shrink considerably. Expect that it will shrink about 3-5%.

[Kelly C. Hanna]

Sounds like you guys have a supplier that is getting you the green stuff...and in this case that isn't good. Moisture content of Ipe I get in Dallas is 11-12%. I found a couple of places on the web where they say it has 16-20% normally. I guess your local suppliers are getting it from someone who isn't drying it quite as much.

No way does any of our Ipe have anything near the moisture content of ANYTHING at Rockler. When I first started installing Ipe, I measured the gaps in my decking months after we finished the jobs and have never found anything to have shrunk enough to show up on my tape.

[DougButterfield]

The most valuable piece of advise I ever got when I was building my deck out of Ipe was from George, at East Teak....the words were:
"Doug, just remember that you're building a deck, not a piece of furniture. People are going to drop food on it, spill drinks on it, and birds are going to crap on it."
Saved me from worrying too much if my joints were "Fine Woodworking" perfect.
...To be straight with you, weather doesn't affect the wood much, and you'll see imperceptable movement. I live in Ohio, btw, so I get the wild tempature swings and humidity swings.