I have a wrap-around porch on my house. It extends 9 feet from the house, and the two legs of the L-shape are 26 feet long. The porch floor is tongue and groove pine. After years of replacing, painting , sanding, repainting, re-replacing, et cetera, these boards, I am considering replacing the floor with composite deck material. I have priced several brands (Trex, Timber Tech, ChoiceDek) and looked at the waranties.
Here is where I need to appeal to the collective wisdom and experience of my fellow Dopers. I can’t find any information on anyone’s actual experience with these materials. I’ve searched on the web, and I have yet to see a review by an actual owner, let alone a site where many owners’ testimonials might be collected. So, does anyone have a composite deck? How old is it? How do you like it? Does anyone know of a site where complaints about and praises for composite deck materials are collected? Thanks to all.
Last year we added a screened-in porch to our house. The company that built it also added a landing to go from the screen door down to the lawn. The landing is about 4’x6’, with about 5 steps down to the grass. After about 6 months, the deck boards started to cup and squeak as you walked down the stairs, so I replaced all deck and step boards with Veranda, the Home Depot composite decking. After a year, I still really like it. It was very easy to work with using regular woodworking tools, requires little to no maintenance (I spray it off with a hose a few times during spring/summer/fall), and I expect it to last forever.
The Muncie Sailing Club considered composite deck boards when they had to replace some dock sections. When they found out the stuff was slippery when wet, they decided that was a bad idea for docks.
I shopped for some to use as a border for my little herb/vegetable garden, and I found it only comes in one size.
I’m an architect, I’ve specified it in several projects, as well as using it on my own deck.
The brand names vary a bit. Some of them have a wider variety of colors and textures, there’s some variety in recycled content, so you can make some comparisons there.
It’s a bit more flexible than wood, so make sure your joists are well within the maximum spans. 16" on center will work fine. I would use pressure treated lumber for the joists, it’s got better support characteristics. Also, it’s a bit heavier than wood, so for a large deck you may need to factor this into load calculations. It’s not a huge difference, usuallywhatever dead load specified by local codes is safe, but it’s something to be aware of.
Deck screws don’t draw down into the decking like they do in wood, so you’ll want to countersink your holes. If you get a combination bit that drills pilot hole, shank hole, and countersink at once you’ll be in good shape. Also, make sure you get the best protected, longest life decking screws you can. Otherwise, the decking will tend to outlive the screws and you’ll have a maintenance issue.
On an aesthetic basis, I normally like natural cedar because of the silver grey weathered color and the warm feeling against your bare feet. But in reality on an horizontal surface, the wood gets dirty and doesn’t look and feel so good. As pointed out above, the composite is super easy to maintain.
It’s much more uniform than wood, so your deck lines will be absolutely straight and parallel. Also, you can use the various colors to create deck patterns.
Basically, composite is the way to go, especially with the highest recycled content you can get.
Again, thanks to all, and some questions for Zachlee: how old is the oldest deck you seen using this stuff? How does it look after a few years? Has it held up better than wood?
I’ve only had experience with composite docks but here’s my two cents. The composite tends to get painfully hot in the sun while wood stays comfortable. Kinda a minor point, but if I were building a deck, I wouldn’t use composite for that reason alone.
The first project I used it on was in 1999 or so, so it’s been in place six years. But that is on a nine story building in downtown Milwaukee, facing North and East so they take a fair amount of weather abuse. They all look just fine.
Unless you’re walking around in razor bladed cleats a lot (regular cleats don’t mar it very much- golf courses have started using it) there’s no weathering to speak of, and no (known) UV degradation.
The composites have only been in use as decks for about a decade, so barring long term UV breakdown, I’d say you should get a twenty year lifespan out of it, at least. It holds up better than wood in any case, even pressure treated wood. It also offers moderate fire resistance - Dropped charcoal melts it and makes a black mark, but doesn’t start a fire.
tremorviolet has a point- since composite is more dense than wood, it will retain heat a bit better. Which is kind of nice in Spring and Fall, at least up here in Winterland. Austin, is, of course, a different story. But TV, in Austin if you’re doing a deck, aren’t you going to use some kind of shading from trees or trellises anyway?
Which is the next recommendation, if the heat gain is a concern. Keep in mind that the heat retention, while greater than wood, is far less than asphalt or concrete. So if you select a lighter color, and use some nice deciduous trees (or trellises, or umbrellas) for shading, you should be just fine.
McFeely’s sells screws made specifically for composite decking. They are supposed to take care of the “bump” of material that you’d otherwise get. I don’t think that they need predrilling (although as a woodworker I tend to predrill anyhow) but you’d only need a regular straight bit.
They come in anti-corrosion finishes, stainless and so on. Square drive gives amazing torque, no bits slipping off the fastener.
I hadn’t heard of the McFeely’s screws. I love square drive, it never slips. Similar to Torx, but meant for construction.
One other minor point: The composite has a higher coefficient of thermal expansion than wood also, so you want to make sure that you leave a slight expansion gap at the ends of long pieces.