This involves installing a border of deck boards around the perimeter of the deck, which creates a more polished and finished look. To do this, simply cut the deck boards to size and install them perpendicular to the rest of the decking.
Pro Tip:
Make sure you order enough standard non-grooved deck boards for your picture frame. You don’t want to see a grooved board around the perimeter of your deck.
Fascia boards are a type of trim that can be used to cover the ends of the composite decking. To do this, cut the fascia boards to the appropriate size and screw them into place using composite deck screws.
Paint the Ends
If you prefer a simpler more traditional deck board installation where the ends of the boards are exposed. You can go to a paint store and get a high quality exterior paint to match the color of your composite deck boards and simply paint the ends of the boards.
This can offer a little added protection from moisture and UV damage.
However, this method requires more maintenance over time as the paint can eventually peel or flake.
Use End Caps
Some composite decking brands offer end caps that can be attached to the ends of the boards to provide a more polished look. Check with your decking manufacturer to see if they offer this option.
Ultimately, the best method for finishing the ends of composite decking will depend on your personal preferences and the specific decking product you are using. It’s always a good idea to consult the manufacturer’s installation instructions for guidance.
A woman relaxes on a hammock strung above a richly hued composite deck. The composite deck is made of Mahogany boards from the TimberTech AZEK Vintage collection.
When it comes to choosing a decking material for your outdoor living space, there are several options available in the market. However, two of the most popular materials are composite decking and PVC decking.
Both composite and PVC decking offer many benefits over traditional wood decking, such as durability, low maintenance, and long-lasting beauty.
In this article, we will compare composite decking vs PVC decking, examining their similarities and differences, to help you decide which material is the right choice for your deck.
Composition
Composite decking is made of a mixture of wood fibers, plastic, and binding agents. The wood fibers provide the natural look and feel of wood, while the plastic provides durability and resistance to moisture, insects, and rot. The binding agents hold the mixture together and provide structural support.
PVC decking, on the other hand, is made entirely of plastic, specifically polyvinyl chloride (PVC). The material is a combination of plastic resin and additives, which provide strength, color, and texture.
Durability
Both composite and PVC decking are highly durable and resistant to moisture, insects, and rot. They are also resistant to fading, staining, and scratching, which makes them ideal for high-traffic areas. However, there are some differences in their durability.
Composite decking is more susceptible to mold and mildew growth, especially in areas with high humidity or moisture. This is because wood fibers in the composite decking can absorb moisture and provide a breeding ground for mold and mildew. To prevent mold and mildew growth, composite decking requires regular cleaning and maintenance.
PVC decking, on the other hand, is 100% moisture-resistant and does not absorb water, making it less susceptible to mold and mildew growth. It’s also more resistant to scratches and dents opposed to composite decking, as it has a harder surface. PVC decking is a good option for high-traffic areas and wet environments such as pool decks and boat docks.
Maintenance
Both composite and PVC decking require very little maintenance compared to traditional softwood decking. They do not need to be stained or sealed, and they are resistant to fading, staining, and scratching. However, there are some differences in their maintenance requirements.
Composite decking requires regular cleaning and maintenance to prevent mold and mildew growth. The decking should be cleaned at least twice a year using a mild detergent and a soft-bristled brush.
PVC decking, on the other hand, requires very little maintenance. It does not need to be cleaned as often as composite decking, and is less prone to moisture issues like mold and mildew. PVC decking is also less likely to stain than composite decking, making it an ideal choice for outdoor living spaces where spills and stains are common.
Appearance
Both composite and PVC decking are available in a wide range of colors and styles, that resemble natural wood, such as cedar or redwood. However, there are some differences in their appearance.
Cheaper grades of composite decking often has a repeating embossed cathedral wood grain that tends to look fake and less attractive. This is a good option for outdoor living spaces on a budget.
Luxury composite decking typically has a plastic cap with more visually appealing wood grains in a variety of colors and textures, allowing homeowners to choose the style that best matches their home’s exterior.
PVC decking, on the other hand, has a more uniform appearance and is available in a wider range of colors than composite decking.
PVC decking is also available in a variety of textures and simulated wood grain allowing homeowners to choose a style that best matches their home’s exterior.
Cost
Both composite and PVC decking are more expensive than traditional softwood decking. However, there are some differences in their cost.
Composite decking is typically less expensive than PVC decking, making it a good option for homeowners on a budget. PVC decking tends to be a little more expensive but can be the better choice if you are in an extreme climate with lots of moisture.
Trex decking is a type of composite decking material made from a combination of wood fibers and plastic. It is known for its durability, low maintenance, and resistance to fading, staining, and scratching.
Unlike traditional wood decking, Trex composite deck boards do not require staining, sealing, or painting, and are also resistant to mold, mildew, and insects.
Trex decking is available in a variety of colors and styles, and it can be used for both residential and commercial decking applications. It is often used as an alternative to traditional wood decking for its durability and longevity.
Trex Decking Colors
Trex decking is available in a wide range of colors to suit different design preferences. The exact colors offered may vary depending on the specific product line, but here are some examples of the colors available for Trex decking:
Some lines also offer multi-colored or variegated options that mimic the look of natural wood. It’s always best to check the specific product line for the available colors as they may vary over time.
What Warranty Does Trex Decking Offer?
Trex decking is known for its durability and long lifespan, and the company offers a variety of warranties to back up the quality of its products. The specific warranty offered may vary depending on the product line and the country or region of purchase.
Here are some examples of the warranties offered for Trex decking in the United States:
Trex Transcend®: 50-year limited residential fade and stain warranty, and 10-year limited commercial warranty.
Trex Select®: 35-year limited residential fade and stain warranty and 10-year limited commercial warranty.
Trex Enhance®: 25-year limited residential fade and stain warranty and and 10-year limited commercial warranty.
It’s important to read the specific warranty terms and conditions carefully, as they may include certain limitations and exclusions. Trex warranties may differ in other countries or regions.
Buy Trex Decking
If you are interested in Trex decking you can buy Trex decking online from our online store. We stock all Trex decking lines and have quantity discounts to help you save money on Trex materials.
In 2021 as homeowners are still reluctant to travel many are in search of the best decking to build their own backyard oasis.
Most homeowners are familiar with the usual decking materials such as pressure treated pine decking, cedar and composite products.
The demand for some of these products has increased greatly due to many homeowners still stuck at home wanting to expand their outdoor living space.
Some of these decking options like pressure treated pine, cedar or redwood decking are softwoods.
Softwoods can look beautiful and last many years but they do typically require annual maintenance to prevent premature rot and decay.
Many homeowners don’t like the thought of maintenance and believe that composite products are “No Maintenance”.
The reality is some of these composite manufacturers years ago advertised their products as “No Maintenance”, homeowners painfully realized this was far from true.
Many homeowners quickly experienced their “No Maintenance” decks would grow mold so fast that many had to power wash their decks almost weekly.
We’ve yet to find a composite product that homeowners haven’t experienced issues with so as of now we don’t recommend or sell any.
If this is an option you want to pursue we strongly suggest doing some google searches for the “brand + complaints and problems” to see what homeowners have experienced.
Top Decking Options for 2021
Our top decking that we usually recommend is Ipe wood but that is the most expensive due to its proven durability, beauty, longevity and demand.
Ipe wood deck
Ipe wood is a South American hardwood known to last up to 75 years on commercial applications like the Coney Island boardwalk with no chemical treatments.
Our overall top pick for decking in 2021 when durability and price are a concern is Tigerwood decking.
Imported from South America Tigerwood is another exceptionally beautiful hardwood deck option that is known to last 30+ years.
This is probably the question asked most often by both our potential and current customers, along with the entire internet. Everyone wants a maintenance-free deck that once it’s installed, you do absolutelynothing and it’ll stay looking just like the first time you stepped on it.
This popular belief was pioneered by some of the manufacturers of synthetic decking products, promising a maintenance-free, trouble-free surface that would last for years without lifting a finger. These fantastic claims resonated well because people were tired of the same Southern Yellow Pine, Cedar or Douglas Fir that would need yearly stripping, sealing and painting just to try to keep it together for a few years.
However, the properties that make these woods popular for construction don’t apply to exterior use. They need to be painted or sealed constantly to protect the wood, otherwise it will deteriorate, splinter, crack, and rot beyond repair. Though cheap initially, the cost of maintenance and the enduring hard work has proven these species unsuitable.
We recommend Pressure Treated wood only for deck framing.
The wonderful thing about our decking is that it maintains its structural integrity as the decades pass. This means there’s none of the deterioration that is typical with species like Southern Yellow Pine. Our decking weathers beautifully to grey, but it stays solid. With our hardwood choices of Ipe, Cumaru, Tigerwood, Garapa, and Massaranduba, you can expect to have one of the densest and strongest woods available on the market. All of these woods are at least 2x stronger and much denser than any of the common wood used for decks.
Having a desire for a low-maintenance material is when our Brazilian hardwood decking becomes most enticing. Using any of our species of hardwoods won’t promise you a deck that, without any help, will be pristine for many decades. We are realistic and we know that our decking needs some maintenance, no matter how minimal it is. The maintenance you can expect with our hardwoods is to have to rinse off the deck with warm water.
If you leave the deck without cleaning for months, you may need to use a cleaner and brightener solution. Don’t worry, this is a powder that dissolves in warm water and gets applied with a mop; if you can mop a floor you can use these solutions. Finally, to keep the color of any of our woods, you will need to re-apply Ipe Oil once every year to two years depending on how much sun your deck sees.
This oil acts as a sunscreen, and brings out the rich tones of the wood’s grain. Unlike most other products on the market, this oil doesn’t need a million things before it’s applied. If your deck is clean, just apply it again!
What we offer is a no compromise decking material that lasts well over 30 years, is 100% natural, low-maintenance, and can always be repaired should there be any scratches or gouges. Even more importantly, compared to any other material, if our hardwood is left to fade, it can always be returned to its original color.
Refinishing is a tradition that all deck owners know well. Whether its pressure treated, cedar, redwood, pine, or any other type of softwood, usually every year in the spring time a proper cleaning and refinishing is necessary to restore its former beauty.
Decks built out of wood look beautiful year in and year out because of the wood’s natural properties. Wood deck surfaces can be power washed or sanded to remove any surface debris without adverse effects to the core of each board.
Take care when power washing to use a wide fan tip nozzle and make sure you hold the wand back far enough away from the deck boards. Once the boards are clean and dry, a stain or protective coat can be applied to keep wood looking wonderful another twelve months before the process starts again.
In the case of our Brazilian hardwoods, it’s a little easier than that. If needed use a cleaner and brightener specific for hardwoods to clean excessive dirt and balance the pH of the wood. Once this step is completed, apply a coat of Ipe Oil to provide protection from the sun’s UV rays.
This process is only necessary once per year depending on how much direct sunlight the deck gets, some home owners can get away with applying the oil to their deck every other year.
Advances in technology created synthetic man-made materials that claim to be the latest and greatest materials to build decks with. Composites claim that their product has all the qualities of a durable, reliable material without any of maintenance that wood requires. As the years pass and composites begin to feel the test of time, a lot of products fail to uphold their promises.
A faded and moldy composite decking will require a complete refinishing
More and more homeowners turn to the internet to search for something that was supposed to be an oxymoron: composite deck refinishing. As their composite decking begins to fade or worse, suffer from delamination resulting in cracked and flaked surfaces, homeowners quickly find their composite decking needs refinishing with chemical products, resulting in a bigger hassle than refinishing regular pressure treated decking.
The classic “all that glitters is not gold” proves once again that if it’s too good to be true, it probably is.
It seems like it’s inevitable, the zombie apocalypse is coming. So what are we to do when this doomsday approaches? We’ll zombie-proof our homes, of course!
Now you may be wondering why you’re on a decking blog reading about zombies, but if The Walking Dead has taught us anything, it’s that we can live amongst the undead.
Here’s where we get down to business, order ipe decking. When you hear about the first victim of this catastrophe, order as much ipe decking as you can OR if you have an ipe deck prepare to dismantle it. After all, I doubt you’ll want to spend any time in an outdoor area as the world starts turning into the undead. Next, I want you to go outside and start boarding up your windows and doors!
Don’t forget to end seal those boards though if you’re going to cut them. If you don’t end seal the deck boards, they will lead to warping and cracking and could leave a weak point for the zombies to enter. After you have end sealed the boards and they’re dry, it’s time to attach the boards to the windows.
Don’t forget to predrill! If you skip the predrilling, the boards will crack and you will break screws. Time is a matter of life and death and this point don’t make any more work for yourself. As for the fasteners? Go with stainless steel screws. Coated screws will fail you. You don’t want to turn into a zombie because of a fastener, do you?
Ipe will last you over 75 years, so even if the apocalypse last for several decades, your boarded up house will too. This hardwood resists mold, decay and insects, and the bony hands of zombies.
Now we can’t guarantee that your neighbors won’t give you weird looks for boarding up your windows with ipe decking, but we can guarantee that they’re going to regret going with soft woods like pine or worse…COMPOSITES. Everyone knows that it’s a fact that zombies will break soft woods right? it’s in every movie and novel ever made!
Stay safe and stay alive during the Zombie Apocalypse!
