reclaimed wood deck questions

[Matte]

To anyone who has worked with reclaimed wood.  How do you deal with slight splits in wood.  I have the wood from a 5 year old large pressure treated deck.  Will be using it around a pool so slivers worry me.

[Greg]

I think you'll want to cull the split boards.  For interior work you could glue and clamp etc., but for exterior I suspect the environmental forces (fancy words for weather) will ruin any such fixes.

If I were really set on using split boards, I'd install them paying attention to where the splits fall on the supporting framing and then use a belt sander to sand flat the whole thing.  But that's me.

Make sure you have the proper support spacing for the board thickness; 24" O.C. max. for 1.5" thick, 16" O.C. max. for 1" thick.

[paddedhat]

I've done a bit of this when I took a massive deck apart. The customer had pulled all of the existing cedar decking up and installed new treated 2x6s. The problem is that he didn't understand that the structure itself was failing, so he basically wasted a lot of lumber. I ended up with about 1500 sq. ft. of slightly used treated 2x6.  Like Greg said, you need to cull before you nail. Then put all of it bark up, and see how it wears. I find the best cure for splinters is a utility knife. It doesn't matter if it's an edge that is lifting, or a splinter coming out of the middle of the board. Gently pull the splinter up, go back to solid wood behind it, and make a sharp cut across the grain, freeing up the small "spear" you are holding. Think of it like chopping a very small branch off a tree by cutting it flush with the trunk. This doesn't look great, but it's hardly noticeable, and it stops the problem for good.

[Matte]

Interesting.  I'll have to try that cutting the splinters method. The cracks aren't all the way through just some boards flexed a lot in taking them apart.  I'm almost leaning towards installing them upside down even though there are a few pry bar marks overall the wood is fresher and smoother.  I won't have problems of support.  Its got 2x6s 16" on centre above 2x8s doubled up above 8x8 posts every 4' or so.