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That's not the fault of the material, if the boards are properly conditioned and installed, warping should not occur. Splintering generally only happens with cheap nasty material, you either bought cheap nasty timber, or got ripped off. The heartwood of cedar is a naturally durable timber...

Timber swells when it picks up moisture, but only in the thickness and not the length, generally it will become tighter in the post or crack the concrete, and not push up. If it has lifted up, and it's not just staining caused by splash back, then something else is pushing or pulling it up...

vertical cracks in posts and newels as shown can be ignored, they are just drying fissures and do not effect the strength. If it is treated timber, rather than naturally durable timber, then the crack may expose untreated timber. this does not matter on a vertical piece to much, as the...

Clear finish = yearly maintenance. Cedar is naturally durable, so can be left to weather and turn grey, but this isn't to everyone's taste. But this will only require the odd stiff broom brush clean and wash to remove dirt. You can buy decking oils, they will last 6-18 months, but give a very...

Urine contains amonia, which stains the timber, sometimes a strong alkaline can remove it (white vinegar), it's a bit hit and miss though and can make the stain darker. There is a product called netrol that will probably shift anything http://www.decorireland.com/Owatrol-Netrol I don't know if...

Generally with hardwood decking, you want to make the holes bigger than the shank of the screw by +1mm, to allow the boards to expand and shrink. Ipe is a very strong timber, and when this isn't done I have seen it snap screw fixings. The fixings should be 2.5x the thickness of the board in...

Firstly check the condition of the beam with a screwdriver or 1mm drill bit. If the screwdriver can be driven into the timber, or the drill offers no resistance, it's knackered. Assuming it's still solid, then remember that brush on treatment does not really penetrate into the timber. The...

(Thread necromancy) Ipe is a very strong timber, a softwood substructure is fine, but you need good long screws in case the ipe wants to move, and so appropriately deep softwood joists. The only other risk of using softwood joists, is that the Ipe will last a lot longer. However the joists...