Composite vs real wood deck in new construction build?
roll80
10 years ago
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mrspete
10 years agodekeoboe
10 years agoRelated Discussions
Composite vs real wood deck in new construction build?
Comments (4)I don't have the square footage costs you asked about but I did quite a bit of research several years ago and had several concerns I'll mention here. I'm in SE Texas where we have high humidy and a lot of rain so that may change your circumstances. I was concerned a composite 2 x 6 board cost three times as much as a treated board, some composite lumber had mold and mildew complaints and required power washing with cleaning chemicals, composite lumber isn't made for structural members under the deck and I figured if I had to stick with treated lumber under the deck, I might as well use it for the deck surface as well. I ultimately chose fiberglass beam construction....See MoreTrex Brasilia vs. Fiberon IPE-like composite decking
Comments (13)It's been 4 years now and our Portico deck still looks good. It appears that it gets slightly more porous as it ages, making it a little more difficult to power wash the winter's dirt off. It still beats staining though and there are no splinters. I also have noticed some spots of unknown origin, possibly tree sap, that appear. The pressure washer removes them, but they eventually return. Another poster reported the same problem and was very unhappy. I guess our expectations are a bit lower. We remain happy with the decision to go with portico. We used mahogany on the upper deck two years earlier and that, in spite of yearly applications of Australian Timber Oil, is weathering not much better than the original pressure treated pine. I find that spraying with Olympic Deck Cleaner with a garden sprayer, followed by pressure washing cleans it up rather easily. My neighbor built a deck with Ipe last summer, that was our alternate choice when we were making our selection. We decided against it because I had a sample board laying on the deck for several months and it was warping and splitting. I will see how their's holds up over the years to see if we made the right choice. I don't think the perfect deck material has been developed yet... I hope this helps....See MoreComposite Decking vs Wood
Comments (8)Epoch/evergrain, one of the soft composites like choice or moisture sheild same kinda deal sister joists on any butt joints, pron to mold unless they get a finsh on them,not near the complaints as trex. Some say a shaded area promotes mold and mildew. With all the composites a person needs to understand completly how and when they want it installed read the fine print on instalation. Provide cross vintalation. I see you have already ruled out Ipe so I wont go into that. I have one Epohc project out 3 years the color has faded 30 % or so not a lot of mold really just the normal stuff that will happen to any outdoor project left alone with no care at all. Also one choice comerical job on a multi leveal condo its 5 years out and looks really bad the decking has faded to a liver color and has started to degrade. One thing might be of intrest to ya, I used the cut offs from that choice project for the treads on my own upstairs deck stairway I put two coats of twp 116 finish on them that same 5 years ago they look a lot better with no real sigh of degrading. John...See MoreMy new Trex composite deck I’ve had less than a year has warped
Comments (22)Wow. I didn’t mean to come off as whining, strategery, Where I live in the South, composite isn’t used a lot vs wood, so it was a big decision for me. And, I do love how it turned out, so I guess I was surprised when I saw it. I always get a lot of good info from the different forums I read here so I thought this was a good place to ask. I never thought about the deck boards matching. That really doesn’t bother me and I’m not so sure if they did that would look natural?...I don’t know. I contacted the contractor that installed my deck and he come out and looked at it. From what I understood something broke inside of one of the Trex posts, I don’t know if it’s a bracket or exactly what, but you can slide the bottom piece up that supports. I’m not sure why but either way he is going to fix it. I attached a pic (I put the piece of brick there to show how it slides up and shouldn’t). Maybe that caused it to buckle, idk, I’m a female that admittedly knows nothing about things like this. Anyway, I really do appreciate all the good advice as it gave me an idea what could have happened and where to start. The support shouldn't have broke, and if it turns out it isn't an installation issue I will definitely be contacting Trex. Thanks again....See Morecricket5050
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