[Atlplasma]

It will gray if left untreated. If you want the like-new look to stay, you have to clean and treat it like any other wood product. I treated my once but didn't like the persistent chemical smell (even with a low VOC oil). Now I just let it do what it wants.

[BobC]

I cant afford the fancy stuff, so I built mine out of treated pine.  I get a lot of sun and the stain failed after a couple of years.  I've since pressure washed the rest of the crappy Olympic off and right now it's bare.  I think I'm just going to seal it and go natural.    If the sun causes a split, I'd switch out the board for peanuts. 

[thunderbrick]

Looks like I am getting off easy. 

We looked at decking options at Lowes and she loves the 5/4 pine with rounded edges.   I'm not a fan of 5/4 so I may stick with 2x6 and round the corners myself with my BMF router. 

Now to decide the stain color.  So glad I got a great power washer this past winter.

After it's done I'll need to get a PE to say it's not good enough for a hot tub and that we shouldn't go that route.   

[gregfisk]

Looks like I am getting off easy. 

We looked at decking options at Lowes and she loves the 5/4 pine with rounded edges.   I'm not a fan of 5/4 so I may stick with 2x6 and round the corners myself with my BMF router. 

Now to decide the stain color.  So glad I got a great power washer this past winter.

After it's done I'll need to get a PE to say it's not good enough for a hot tub and that we shouldn't go that route.   

I think you are wise going with 2x6, I don't mind the look of 5/4 but it doesn't hold up nearly as well as 2x6. I don't recall where you live but it's interesting what you can and can't get depending on where you live. Here is Seattle the only 5/4 board is cedar, I've never seen pine for outdoor deck use. We used wide plank Arkansas pine for our guest house floors and it looks really nice. It is very soft thou, contrary to what I was told. Apparently it's is harder that other types of pine but it still dents and scratches very easily.

I do bet pine would look really good as a deck, especially with the 2x6 material. Make sure and take pictures, I like to see what it looks like done.

Greg

[thunderbrick]

Shit.  She changed her mind.   

My good (GREAT) son-in-law stopped by today and we took a tape measure to the deck platform.  "Out of square" doesn't begin to describe it and to make the support posts plumb would mean moving them 1"-2"  OFF the slab below.  WTF???

I knew they used oversized joist hangers here and there with 2x blocks filling the gaps, but there were more than I thought.     Other parts look like they came out of a scrap yard.   I might just flip the deck boards over and call it good.

This may turn into a complete tear down and start over.   There goes the budget.   

Only good news is that the nails holding the deck boards down come out easily.