Hit the deck
New composite, plastic decks offer good looks with less work
A backyard deck is supposed to be a relaxing retreat.
But there’s nothing relaxing about the drudgery of cleaning, sanding and staining a wood deck over the years. A growing number of homeowners are looking beyond wood to higher-priced but lower-maintenance alternatives such as composite (ground-up wood mixed with new or recycled plastic) and all-plastic decks.
“A wood deck is going to need some annual protection from the elements,” says Shawn Miller, president, North American Deck and Railing Association. “A composite deck is only going to need to be hosed off every now and then.”
New deck tech
The first composite decks in the 1980s were more susceptible to mold and fading, and sometimes acquired a bad reputation, says Michael Rudh, deck designer for Decks.com, Alpharetta, Ga. But new composite products introduced during the past few years use different technologies to guard against those problems. The newer products are generally priced higher than earlier-generation composite materials but offer much better protection against the elements, says Miller.
Some newer composites such as Fiberon’s Horizon line, TimberTech’s Earthwood Evolutions and Trex Transcend encapsulate the deck material in vinyl for added resistance to stains and scratches.
Other composite products use materials besides ground-up wood to help prevent mold. DuraLife Natural Grain composite, for example, incorporates rice hulls, which are more water-resistant than wood.
Composite boards now come in a range of white, gray and brown shades and realistic wood textures, says Rudh, with railings to match.
“A lot of people are using gray,” he says, “and the light-brown cedar color and the dark brownish redwood color are probably the most popular.”
Let’s get ‘real’
“There are some very realistic-looking materials now; you really have to look at it to tell if it’s composite or not,” Miller says.
All-plastic deck materials made from PVC (vinyl) offer many of the same benefits as composites but tend to be pricier. They have the added advantage of being impervious to moisture, so mold and decay don’t enter into the picture.
“PVC options are a little lighter in color than composite decking, and they’re a little cooler underfoot [in hot weather] because PVC doesn’t retain heat the way plastic does,” Miller says.
The newest breed of vinyl decks are made of cellular PVC formed into solid planks, such as Fiberon Outdoor Flooring, and offer a much wider variety of wood colors and textures than more traditional hollow vinyl decks.
Both composite and vinyl deck materials will likely stand the test of time better than wood, says Miller, president of Classic Designs Inc. in the Denver metro area.
“They protect themselves, and they’re not susceptible to cracking and splintering,” he says.
Examples of EverGrain compression-molded decks.
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