IPE deck installation

Our trim carpenters started laying out the IPE boards for installation today. Goal is to have a perfectly installed IPE deck with a screw pattern specified by the architect and a board spacing of 1/8". Our material came from Austin Wholesale Decking and the majority of it was good quality. You have to be careful because there is a big quality difference between vendors – if you happen to find someone who is 15%-20% cheaper than the next guy – there’s a reason. I will post some drawings of the screw pattern in another post. We are using only stainless steel trim head screws. All screwholes are pre-drilled with a drill bit only marginally smaller than the screw diameter. IPE is prone to splitting if there’s too much pressure on the board. You also have to be careful with your screw placement. Check follow-up posts for more details.