WOWZA!
I'll have to admit those guys, as archaic as their methods seem to be are true craftsmen. Amazing that things can be done without lasers and computers...... and government regulated safety requirements.
Near the beginning watching that guy push those 12-in wide boards through the planer with his bare hands scared the crap out of me. I mean what kind of work can you do when you don't have fingers or hands?
Looks like they have done this a time or two. What was the reason for scoring the bottoms of the landings? Is it to help bind to the asphalt, or is it to stop warping?
Scoring the bottoms is to help bind to the asphalt. Let's say if they didn't score the bottoms, and the asphalt is cool, the planks would come off from cooled-down smooth asphalt real easy.