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Composite decking

Discussion in 'General' started by Scotty87, Sep 29, 2019.

  1. K51000

    K51000 Well-Known Member

    I see. I don't know if you would have lost the cedar smell when it soaked in a few weeks though, but IDK for sure.

    Good luck with whatever you decide.

    * I had thought for sure I was going to go with the plastics on mine too.
    For me and my deck (which face south btw), after all the research, etc.
    I went with these premium treated ones from a lumber yard- it actually look kinda like cedar from the treatment, kinda brownish, a bit of orangeish? Mine are the tru deck board with the beveled adges too. The Camo tool spaces thenm all evenly, a little gap between them all, etc.
     
  2. sharkattack

    sharkattack Rescued pets over people. All day, every day

    My deck is Veka decking. Excellent product.
     
  3. CRA_Fizzer

    CRA_Fizzer Honking at putter!

    That's the same one i bought. Love it.

    Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk
     
  4. cyclenut

    cyclenut Well-Known Member

    I put Trex Transcend on my 10 x 24 deck about 8 years ago. It still looks the same, like new. Washed it once. Not cheap though.
     
    BigBird and K51000 like this.
  5. CRA_Fizzer

    CRA_Fizzer Honking at putter!

    Worth every penny not to deal w/ the bullshit of a wood deck.
     
    BigBird and speedluvn like this.
  6. SuddenBraking

    SuddenBraking The Iron Price

    I replaced cedar with pressure treated - any reason to not spend about the same and have the durability? It's obviously not as pretty as cedar but if I get 15 years out of this new deck, I'll be a happy camper. ~1000SF of 16 foot boards was about $2K.
     
    K51000 likes this.
  7. speedluvn

    speedluvn Man card Issuer

    :stupid:

    I consider the composite materials an investment. In the future I don’t intend to be doing much maintenance besides the occasional hosing off the deck. I’m definitely noted interested in the applying a sealer every 3 to 5 years.
     
    CRA_Fizzer and rd49 like this.
  8. K51000

    K51000 Well-Known Member

    I had replaced 2x6's on my deck. They were getting rotten.
    In fact, when I used the prybar to get them up, the uncersides were more rotten than the top side! I bought the house w/ it 10 years ago, and it was already looking bad.

    I went the some #1 pressure treated deck boards- brown in color, not green.
    I even coated the new boards I put down with Water Seal on both sides before installing.

    I like it. I was looking for pics, and cold only find this pic of my smoker, with the deck in the background. NO holes on top- Camo tool baby! The railing is all the same lumber too.

    [​IMG]

    * PS- I also read the plastic gets really hot in the sun, like for bare feet

    TBH, I'm glad I went with a good quality wood product, YMMV
     
  9. Sprayer is the key. I also took a med size construction broom and modified it so I could use it to wipe after spraying. Laziness or efficient, not sure but either way it saved my back and time. Now I have concrete which is less of a pain but still needs pressure washing now and then.
     
    K51000 likes this.
  10. E Reed

    E Reed Well-Known Member

    Not to mention expensive as f*** and hard as a rock. You'll go through 5 saw blades cutting them to length...
     
  11. E Reed

    E Reed Well-Known Member

    Trex Transcends goes for around $3.60/LF, wholesale.

    They have a select grade that runs $2.08/LF, wholesale as well.

    That's here in the Nashville area.

    The Azek/Timber Tech is nice stuff, but I haven't bought any of it in years.
     
  12. peakpowersports

    peakpowersports Well-Known Member

    Debating on the new house wood vs composite. The problem I have with composite is if by some chance a board needs replacing down the road, it will not match. All the composite stuff will fade some, although not noticeable until you put a new board on. That and the cost of it, and if I want to change the look/color in 5 years I cant.

    My old house I built a 500sf deck from pressure treated and it still looked fantastic 7 years later (refinished it once, took an afternoon to pressure wash and another afternoon to stain/seal.
     
    K51000 likes this.
  13. yokohama1

    yokohama1 Well-Known Member

    One other thing to consider with composite is the frame you are laying them on. Composite has little rigidity and will form to any contours of the framing where wood will actually pull or push the framing so crowned joists will not look so bad. Southern yellow pine that almost all of decks are framed out of is notoriously not straight at all. We actually did one where we screwed 2x10’s to the underneath of the joists which helped. You are spending a lot of money on composite decking for it to look so wavy.
     
    E Reed likes this.
  14. speedluvn

    speedluvn Man card Issuer

    Any remedy to this issue? Closer joist spacing?
     
  15. yokohama1

    yokohama1 Well-Known Member

    One expensive solution is there are manufacturers of aluminum “I” joists. I’d have to do some looking to see who makes them. I remember they were trying to sell them at one distributor that I buy from a few years back.
    If you are starting with a new frame, you look for the straightest wood you can find but they can move over time. The one we did on an existing frame we screwed three 2x10’s under the joists spaces about 3 or 4 feet apart over a deck that had probably 14’ long joists. The appearance was acceptable after but not great. We did it after it was decked as I thought it looked horrible. People spend a load on composite and they don’t want to see a wavy deck. I was on the job a lot and didn’t notice them being bad before we re decked. This solution requires room under the deck to work too.
    We don’t do a ton of decks but enough to know the pitfalls of wood vs. composite.
    Here in NC the weather is hard on wood decks and I really don’t like the treatment they are using now. Not enough depth of penetration for the rot treatment. But I also don’t care for composite decking and really don’t like the rail systems.
     

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