Replies

1. 
   user-1118538293 | Mar 23, 2022 11:56am | #1

   In my experience at box stores, cedar lumber is sold either as 1x material surfaced on one side, so in hardwood equivalent terms, 4/4 material, or in construction dimensions, such as 2x4, 2x6 etc (all nominal, of course). The 4/4 or 1x material will have square edges.
   Deck boards are, as far as I have seen, sold as 5/4 material, surfaced both sides, with heavily rounded edges.
   So if you are comparing prices of deck boards vs dimensional lumber, such as 2x6 (since deck boards are typically 6" nominal wide), one reason it would be cheaper is that the dimensional board has almost 40% more wood in it due to the extra thickness.
   I don't know about grading of deck boards, but generally as boards get longer and wider doesn't the per-board-foot price go up because it's harder to find large pieces? Since deck boards are normally long, if they are cheaper I would assume that the grade is lower. Given that they are screwed down every 16" (usually) you can get away with a lot more twist/cup/bow in deck boards than you would tolerate in lumber for other uses.

2. 
   pantalones868 | Mar 23, 2022 07:07pm | #2

   By cedar I'm assuming you mean Western Red Cedar. Like pretty much any type of lumber it comes in grades. As people who buy lumber we should hold vendors feet to the fire to represent what they are selling by upholding these standards. Often vendors are selling lumber as clear or A grade when at best its maybe a B. There are standard clear grades and standard knotty grades in cedar. The best in clear grade is clear vg then A,B, Rustic ( Resawn face but usually A grade material) then C grade. Knotty grades are select,quality, merchantable, construction,standard and utility.
   They all have price points and decking is no different than any other. Bezos would have a deck of clear vg . Around here where I live you couldn't find a house for 1 1/2 mil so a lot of select material on decks. A nice deck would be B or btr. The rest of us mooches will settle for less!
   From the knotty category select merchantable would be about as far down the rung as you would want to go. Construction or standard grades - think fencing.
   Cedar is a bit soft for a deck but since redwood in any kind of quality is difficult to get cedar seems to be it.

3. 
   _mj_ | Mar 23, 2022 08:00pm | #3

   I built my deck in NYC of Q-sawn select cedar about 27 years ago. Annual replacement of boards started 5 years back. I finally replaced the surface with Ipe over the past 2 seasons. I looked into cedar first and the quality of what was out there was lacking while still being expensive. I think the little trade war with Canada affected it somewhat.

   I stay away from big box cedar pretty much across all grades, too wonky & unpredictable. Moonshot's take on screwing it down fast is right on the money.