Composite or Plastic Decking?

[Virgil]

Thanks. I will look into this but I know it is about twice the cost....

[gjbingham]

I used Choice Deck - sold by Lowes. 25 year warantee not to stain or rot. Mine looks like crap after 1.5 years. I think there's a class action suit working against the manufacturer of this stuff.

[Rob BU]

Trex is excellent.

I have done a big deck 3 years ago--looks great.

But recently came across DekStone and other such products--made from concrete based material. Lots of finishes, colors. You can choose one that lays across 4x4s (4x6s etc), or other kinds that have small "feet" to lay on a roof. Not cheap, but seems like a great product. They will send samples.

R

[edschmidt]

I am a contractor and have installed my share of composite decks. The real problem with these is the balance between wood and plastic content. There is one that menards cells with a high wood content and its hollow in the center. The problem is it stains like crazy. If a nail is left on it over night it will permanently stain the deck. Grease same thing and because its hollow you cant sand it very deep. It also stays wet and can tend to mold. On the other end of the spectrum theres high plastic content decks such as eon which are extremely slippery, and expand and contract way too much.

The only one I ever feel good about installing is trex, It seems to have a good balance between the two, and has been in this business a long time without changing there products every year to correct problems which seems to be the industry norm. I would stay away from all of the fancy hidden fastener systems as well. I find that they never hold well and allow the joists to move freely. I use the small stainless steel screws that mushroom the surface of the deck when they go in, then I just tap with a hammer and the material fills in the hole which was just created. Solid and hidden, and about 1/2 the price of those crappy systems.

With all that said I would not necessarily recommend any of these products. They all seem too expensive for what you get, there are still compromises. I would take my savings on High quality southern pine treated decking, and use it to pay people to clean and finish it every year.

My 2 cents.
Eddie

[gjbingham]

Eddie,
Thanks for the input. Nice to hear from someone who works with the products. You can't get southern pine around the NW. Too much Doug Fir at rock bottom prices these days. No need to ship in lumber from elsewhere.

G.

[edschmidt]

Theres your problem, I worked for 11 years for a company that happened to be the largest lumber treater in the country. If I remember right (I normally do) southern pine is the only truly treatable species. Everything else is treated to refusal and will rot. There are lumber yards around here that sell treated red pine, but I will not install there products. Also if possible get the ones with arsinic. The replacement treatements (AC2, AcQ are highly corrosive and less effective. I can usually get treated southern pine for about the same price as non-treated syp, at least in MI.
Good Luck

[Archena]

Hi,

Ed, what does "treated to refusal" mean?

[edschmidt]

It means it turned green. Really it just means they pumped in all of the chemicals that they could, but the composition of the wood is such that it will not hold the chemicals permanently, pretty much all wood fencing is this way. The treaters are really doing themselves a disservice by doing this type of thing because people will look at these products after 5 years, see the rot, and dismiss all treated wood products.
Eddie

[Archena]

Okay, thanks. I suspected it was something like that but wasn't sure.