decking - bending out of shape

Danscott-

I am happy to hear all is well and that is the first place to start.  The second is I would check with the distributor and see what they recommend for the specific species of wood you purchased as "routine maintainance".  Follow their instructions and make sure you adhere to them.

Second of all I think that if I were to have built a deck I would not have secured the decking with nails.  I would have used screws as they have a mechanical grab that is hard to beat.  Nails depending upon the type used will over time soften the wood fibers and will inhibit the nails to pull from the structural members and then you may experience problems and again you may not.

I wish you good luck and imho from where I sit you might have a problem with having just used nails but that may not ever develope into a problem.

Sincerely,

James D. Van Raden/ Owner

Paragon Renovations

Moorhead, MN USA

We have a ipe deck (ipe is a type of wood) and several boards have warped due to the changes in humidity above and below the deck.  You probably don't want to hear this but I would think you'd want to use screws (rather than nails). If you notice a board warping, a screw might put it back down.

The other issue we had was the boards swelling so the gap between the boards disappeared and led to warping. We ended up using a circular saw to carefully trim the edges of the warped board (to make space) and then screw it back down in place.

I haven't tried any products on the deck--ours is unfinished.  Good luck!