CONSULTATION » Decking boards » Cracks crooked warped
cracks and warping
Decking boards can crack over time. In addition, they can warp or be warped before installation. Here you can find out how you can prevent nasty surprises and how your wooden terrace ages gracefully.
Why do decking boards crack and warp?
Cracks and warping in decking can occur as the wood adapts to its environment and changing temperatures and humidity levels. Two factors are decisive in ensuring that decking boards remain as straight as possible and without cracks: the natural wood properties and gentle drying.
The drying
Drying is a decisive factor for the dimensional stability and dimensional stability of outdoor decking. With the right type of drying, warping and cracking can be minimized by adapting the wood to changing climatic conditions. Two drying variants dominate on the European market: technical drying in a drying chamber and drying in the air. In kiln drying, the wood is dried in an electronically controlled drying kiln to a moisture content of around 15%. This process significantly reduces the swelling and shrinking behavior of the wood. Kiln dried wood is superior to air dried wood in terms of quality and dimensional stability. All Decking boards at Betterwood are technically dried.
The wood properties
Another factor in the dimensional stability of wood is its natural tendency to warp. There are woods that tend to twist very strongly, and others that are characterized by high dimensional stability and dimensional stability. In this area, teak has the best technical values. You can find an overview of the technical properties of the best-known decking wood in our Wood Lexicon, at Betterwood When selecting our terrace boards, we pay attention to particularly good values in this area so that you can enjoy your terrace for a long time.
prevent cracks
Unfortunately, even the best wood outdoors can crack and splinter. As a preventative measure, the wooden terrace should therefore be treated with a terrace oil. This prevents surface cracks on the decking boards. On the cut edges, the decking should be treated with a front edge wax. The suitable wood care products against cracks and splinters can be found in our wood care.
The General Association of the German Timber Trade has one Information leaflet about cracks in wood released. Here it is defined which cracks are normal and are part of the natural aging process of the wood and which cracks are due to incorrect drying or storage.
Install crooked decking boards
Even crooked decking boards can be installed straight. You can find out how this works best and which tools are available in our Laying instructions for decking boards.
Table of Contents
process
calculate demand
calculate costs
Order wood samples
Wood decking shipping
interim storage
Building instructions wooden terrace
grocery list
Prepare the subsurface
meadow or earth
stone or concrete
roof or balcony
hillside
Lay out the foundation
Establish height compensation
Lay the substructure
Install decking
Select saw blade
Screw the decking boards together
Building instructions terrace screws
Assembly instruction clips
Fade wooden terrace
build stairs
Decking boards crooked
Typical mistakes
Care for
Clean
Enjoy
Decking quality
Best decking wood
Wood species comparison
hand sorting
cracks and curvature
Durability wooden deck
Wood vs Aluminum
Concealed screw connection comparison
branded products
finger joint