Composite Decking

Any recommendations for composite decking? Do you have it? How old is it? Do you still like it? Did you do composite for just the floor and hand rail or the complete railing? Who was your builder? I heard that it scratches easily. Is this true? Did it fade in color? Was the fading uniform? (Our location has half sunlight and half shade)


Thank you.

 

I got a quote from Long Fence last year to build a deck on my house (never followed through though)...and i thought they had an intersting approach. The composite decking price was only about 500 or so more bucks b/c they used composite boards for the floor and hand rails--but used wood for the "spokes". when they used composite material for the "spokes"--the price jumped about 3 grand. It's worth checking out. they have them in wood color nowadays...

 

http://www.broadlandshoa.org/hoaforum/showthread.php?t=3299&highlight=decking

 

We have composite-only because the wood that was delivered was HORRIBLE and we made the company return it. Initially, the company (sorry-can't remember the name) quoted about 1/3 more for composite. After the wood delivery debacle (with tons of knots and not good quality), it ended up being under a thousand more (550 square feet total) We had a wood deck built about 6 years ago and, when the horrible wood was delivered (1.5 years ago), we were told that the quality of wood had gone down significantly due to hurricane Katrina and the influx of new homes across the country.

Only problems we have had w/ the composite: yes, it does scratch kind of easily (wheeled the bbq acroos the deck and forgot to "unlock" one wheel so we scratched the deck) and we have a little mildew where the water drops from an overhang-nothing a quick powerwash won't fix. All in all, I have been very impressed with the composite. No fading to speak of and very little maintenance.

We had them do composite floor and handrails. The spokes between the rail and the floor are wood, but it looks great. We were told that composite was approved for horizontal surfaces but not for verticle-this had something to do with how the boards were engineered.

Hope this info helps.

 

We have grey Trex decking and wood (painted white) rails. Two years old and it looks great (though, we'll have to touch up the paint this year). The Trex is very nice. The house next door also has composite but I think it was another brand in a light brown color and it really looks faded and stained 3 years later. No matter what, I think you have to power wash it at least once a year--we seem to get alot of black, oily gunk from the aircraft overhead or something. If you want to come see the difference, PM me.

D

 

Only had this on the handrail of our old house and one downfall we thought was that it got very hot to the touch in the afternoon sun (compared to rest of wood deck). Anyone else have this experience?

 

Yep these composites can get hot especially bad on bare feet.

We have had them fade also.

The joist need to be at least 16" on center as they have a tendency to bend when the spacing is further apart.

They do look nice especially when you use the hidden fastening system.

They say they have been improved over the years against fading etc only time will tell.

Not many are not tongue and groove which I perfer because it helps the water to run off the sides not thru it.

Iron wood is also a good natural product and it will take a little maintenence.

I am not against these compsites just cautious about how they will perform in the long term.

New ideas in construction always need a long time period to prove their worth.

We have been burnt by many new technologies over the years.

Too many examples of this to go into here.

Lee j.

 

We built a composite deck with wood rails last summer. Love the material - went with Evergrain. Our builder advised against Trex - it tends to get mildew easily. Evergrain contains chemicals that limit mildew. Previous posts are correct - it gets very hot and scratches easily. It also gets very slick when wet - a bit dangerous for the kids. On the flip side, you'll never get a splinter.

The material fades, but a good builder will help you to plan for it. They should show you samples of what it looks like new and other samples of what it will look like in 1 year.

I'd highly recommend the builder we used - Kenny Williams Construction. They've built decks for almost 30 years and have a class-A license. Guys showed up on time every day and worked long hours to get the job done fast. Very professional and priced fairly (not the cheapest, but comparable to other quotes we received).

 

The biggest thing about choosing composite decking are to know its strengths and weaknesses as a category, and then to choose the product with the benefits that you desire. Composites as a category won't rot, split, or splinter like wood, but many can display aesthetic issues like mold growth, inconsistent color fade, or grease staining. This is due to the wood fiber at the surface of most of the composites. Look for a composite with added antimicrobials and no surface wood fiber- it will perform like a high end vinyl siding will. The trade off is they look more plasitcky. So, that's the main choice as I see it: wood fiber showing on top means more cleaning and fading, no wood fiber on top will be a bit more expensive but probably worth it in the long run.