Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Synthetic decking...

Looking for any decking pro advice.....

I'm pulling up the awful Crosstimbers synthetic sh*t I put down ten years ago. It was new and all the rage at the time and the product is simply awful. It swells and contracts literally as you watch it.

Synthetic decking has come a long way and we want to utilize it again with a dependable product. I DO NOT want wood.

I can get Trex Trancends product reasonably, this isn't the earlier Trex product with so many issues, its a capped product.
The reviews are very good.. I'm not against using something else, but can get a decent price on the new 2" x 6" Trex Trancends boards.
Looking for general advice by guys who use this or other products daily. Deck is 1000 sq ft. B I G sucker and we use it a lot--it will get a lot of heat in the Summer and a lot of rain--fall 'til Spring..

Thanks in advance.

tagged

Our deck is about that size, and we used Trex when we did it almost four years ago. I'm not sure if it's the "new" Trex or not but we've had zero issues with it. Our climate runs fro 0° to 100° and we get rain, snow, and ice.

I just spent a half hour having a beer out there, and marveled at how well the deck still looks. Quite a coinkeydink, huh?

Here's ours, right after a rain...

trex will fall apart from the bottom at times and you will step thru it.before you buy synthetic check to see what the joist spacing requirments are.

Check out Ipe and cry once.

What Trex? Do you have a series? Select? Trancends? etc...

My last deck called for 24" OC.
Per the seller, the 2" Trancends will sit fine on 24" OC, what I currently have. I'm not afraid of yanking joists and hangers and closing things up a bit though.
I pulled all of the joists on the exposed/weathered side of the house yesterday and will run 16" OC either way there, and under the Jacuzzi is 12" OC.

The 24" OC joist work on the front deck area has an overhang; that area and decking actually survived pretty decently over the last decade. I'll reuse those joists.

I like IPE but won't use it. We're hard on our decks; and scuffs, abuse, etc, are par for the course. Can't justify spending $20K in planking where $6K will work.
That $ will fence my 10 acres of pasture--priorities.

Yep, Ipe cost is crazy. Not to mention labor intensive. But, it's fricking gorgeous and will outlast us all. Regardless of how rough you treat it

Maybe Spanky will post pics of his new, expansive deck, with a view overlooking other people's property.

Or maybe he just has a really small deck. You can always tell which guys have little decks.

Ditto. I have sold TONS of Ipe. It does cost more but if you are going to stay in the house it's worth it. Oil it once and then let it go to it's natural silvery gray and be happy.

Small hands, right?

Ditto

Tearing some off now. I don't know what the brand is. I wouldn't use the synthetic if you gave me some.

We built a deck 2 years ago. As luck would have it, Lowes gray Choicedeck boards went very well with our house and they had a great sale going when we needed it. We've been very happy with it. It doesn't get overly hot in the sun and, unlike some synthetics, doesn't get slicker than snot when there's frost on it.

I fell into a pile of quarter-sawn ash years ago. The emerald ash borer was decimating the ash trees in Ohio and Indiana and the wood ended up far cheaper than 5/4 PT lumber.

Deck held up like iron... and weathered beautifully. Quarter-sawn wood is awesome.

I know you said no to wood, but just wanted to throw out that there are some great woods (Pressure treated pine is NOT one of them).

An outside deck is nice.

Concrete patio with stonework works for me

the old favorite 5/4 radius edged P:T SYP decking is hard to beat when it comes to price and reliability.

lot's of good synthetics out there, but the cost is always a factor.

I've seen some very nice ones and we considered one, too. However, a raised deck made of stone can get a bit heavy on the framework.

My neighbor in Idaho has had Trex (installed 13 years ago, no idea which) failures a number of times. It sees a lot of snow and a fair bit of snow. Appears it goes brittle.

If you trim the shrubs around your deck it will make it look bigger.