My stair design includes a wide tread dimension where two standard
Trex boards would still be an inch shy. So I decided to get fancy by inserting a strip of
Ipé wood. It's relatively expensive at $24 for the smallest piece I found (8-foot of 5/4 x6). The inlay appearance turned out nice though. It's also called "ironwood" -- it's denser than water and one of the hardest hardwoods available.
I'm also experimenting with invisible deck fasteners. This
Deckmaster solution is one of the few that works when boards have a lip overhang like stair treads.
The bracket piece was easy enough to cut short with aviation snips. However, it's almost mandatory to put your entire body weight over the fasten point while crouching over in a real tiring position to drive the special screws up from underneath. It's recommended, but still very tiring. Then the screw angle pulls the board off position if it doesn't bite perfectly. I would not recommend it for sloppy workers.
It's not a cheap solution either, at a cost of $40 for the smallest quantity (10 pieces of 22" long brackets suitable for about 25 sq.ft. of decking).
But while waiting for PG&E to do so, which takes forever, conceivably the meter can be kept "unplugged." All that's needed to bring in power are conductors about 1/8" thick and 3 1/2" long to bridge the incoming hot leads (top) to the house leads (bottom). The width between the two hots is 2 7/8" on centers. A rimmed wood block, for example, fixed with copper bars (to prevent shorting) can be inserted in place of the meter. And to be discrete for the meter reader, online accounts show which days of the month they come by!
Their delays are getting so absurd, it's truly inspiring some creative thinking. Click on photo to backtrack.
