23 Winter St Front Porch23 Winter St – Washington Square Historical District
Replace Wood Decking on Front Porch, using Composite look-alike
Homeowner/Submitter: Michael Gunning, 520-429-1661, michaelwgunning@gmail.com
Existing wood decking at front porch of house is old, greyed out, and no longer holds color
stain. Proposal is to replace this with a composite look-alike product as described below.
In this document see Figures 1-4. Figure 1 is an aerial view showing location of porch decking
to be replaced, and location of street level photos supplied. Figures 2-3 correspond to photos
taken from street level. Figure 4 is a screen snapshot from the website of TimberTek showing
materials proposed to be used.
Existing wood porch consists of 1x3.5 planks, nailed to joists with ring shank nails, and which
has through the years been stained a brown color. Wood has aged, is grey and chipped, and no
longer holds stain. Attempts to power wash and refinish have not given much improvement,
it’s time to replace it.
Replacement materials proposed are TimberTek Advanced Vintage Collection, color “Cypress”
which is a suitable medium brown. Narrow profile in a 1x3.5 square shoulder is a match for
what it is replacing. This material is a high-end composite with a 50 year warranty and
color/woodgrain appearance indistinguishable from real wood at any reasonable distance.
Location of decking to be replaced is on the inner side- and adjoining to the granite stoop. See
Figure 1 Aerial view.
Visibility from the street is limited. As shown in Figures 2 and 3 (photos from street level) the
decking is tucked to the back of the stop and only nominally visible from Winter Street at eye
level. The decking is generally not visible at all when viewed from Pleasant Street Ave side as
the lower street elevation and landscaping (columnar evergreens) hide the porch decking.
The entire decking area will be replaced. Underlying joist structure and existing porch railings
are intact and no need for replacement, just a straight replacement of the existing deck boards.
The deck boards will be fastened to existing joists using color matched marine grade deck
screws which are counter-sunk to deck height.
No other modifications are expected to any other aspect of this area of the house.
Decking will be installed by the homeowner, experienced in such projects. Installation is fully
contained on homeowners property, requires no ladders and will not impede or impact foot
traffic on the adjoining sidewalk nor the street. Installation expected to take two days.
Homeowner will responsibly dispose all old materials.
Figure 1 - Aerial View showing location of front porch decking and location each street view photo was taken from.
Front Porch
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 2 – View from corner of Winter St and Pleasant St Ave.
Figure 3 – View from Winter St.
Figure 4 – Snapshot of TimberTek materials from website: https://www.timbertech.com/product/azek-vintage-collection/