Wood Decks in Mount Lookout, OH

Western red cedar arriving for a Mount Lookout (ZIP 45226) deck is rarely one color. Lay the boards side by side and they run from pale straw through salmon pink to a deep reddish brown, sometimes all in the same bundle. It is part of what makes cedar handsome, and on a large floor it needs arranging.

The range comes from the tree. Cedar heartwood darkens with the extractives laid down as the tree ages, and those vary with the age of the wood, the part of the log and the site it grew on, so boards cut from different logs, and even from the same log, come out very differently. The pale streak along some edges is sapwood, which is lighter again.

Laid in the order they come off the pile, boards from one log tend to land together and the floor ends up in patches: a dark run by the door, a pale strip along the rail. So on a deck of any size we open several bundles before laying starts, stand the boards against a wall and deal them out across the floor, spreading the darkest and palest evenly through the field. Nothing is wasted in the process; it only decides where each board goes.

Time does the rest. Cedar tones converge as the surface weathers, the pinks mellowing and the darkest boards lightening, so a floor that looks varied in its first week looks like one material by its first autumn. The first coat, carrying some pigment, narrows the range further. Laid that way, a cedar deck in Mount Lookout shows the richness of the wood without any board shouting.