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Has anyone done their deck in the artificial wood stuff? The last reports I read on deck treatments said that pressure washing and staining your deck is only going to last 3 years at the most and then is going to have to be done again. (Consumer's Report magazine) It makes sense to me that, in the long run, it would be cheaper to install the artificial wood in the first place and not have to mess with it again. (That is if it stands up to the elements the way they say it is supposed to do) Has anyone had any experience with it?
I replaced my deck 3 years ago with composite. I had it done just before the first snow and by the time the snow melted in the spring the color had faded so bad it was ugly. I am trying to find out if I can stain it.
I replaced my other deck 2 weeks ago and I used just plain Larch. Not pressure treated or anything. (the supports were pressure treated). At $5 a board for the Larch and $40 a board for the composite I figure I can do a lot of replacements. Plus, I am not so disgusted with the larch. Maybe my expectations were too high for the composite.
I've also had a not-so-good experience with composite...but the caveat is that I don't know how long ago it was installed (came with the house). And I also don't think it was installed correctly--it should have a slight slope somewhere to let water drain off easily and it really doesn't, and there is also no space in between most of the boards which would help with the water drainage. Basically what happened with mine is after being here for a couple years, there were spots on the surface where it was pitted and flaking off--I finally stained it this year in hopes of keeping the damage from getting worse (plus I hated the color and wanted to change it anyway). I had initially assumed it was water damage caused by it not being sloped properly (I have a lot of container plants on the deck so I water pretty frequently), but just the other day I noticed a spot on my back balcony where I don't have any plants and it's doing the same thing (and the area where it's happening is under the eaves of the house so it would never get wet) so I think the sun may contribute as well.
Jnette--you can stain composite, but before you do I'd find out if yours is still under warranty--I think once you stain it that probably voids their warranty and yours isn't that old so maybe it's still under warranty and they'd have to fix it for you. I also don't know how long the stain lasts since I just did it this year, but I figure once you stain it, it probably becomes more like a wood deck where you'll have to restain/reseal every few years. I used an opaque water-based stain from Olympic. I used opaque because I was trying to turn the color from gray to brown, but I would assume you could use a transparent or semi-transparent one instead if you wanted to. I think the opaque ones last longer though. I'm not sure if you could use oil-based stain or not--I worried a little about how the solvents in the oil base would interact with the plastic part of the composite, plus I hate the cleanup from oil-based stuff so I won't use it unless I have no other option.
I must tell you first that I was looking at literature just recently from TREX, I think the most expensive, and they state in there that you will have a 20% fading. I am going to have to see if I can't find that to make sure of the amount. But, my advice to you would be to research using the computer. The brand I bought was Echo, might have been spelled Ecco? LOL, don't remember.
But probably the Trex website will tell you everything that they had in the pamphlet. If it is 20% then I think that is a lot. Unless you go with gray or brown. Then with either of those, it would just look weathered or old. LOL, just what you want from a new deck.
Thanks for all the info. Consumers Report July 2008 lists Veranda as being Excellent for resistance to color change but it is only Fair for mildew. Trex is Very Good for color change but poor for mildew & Good for slipping. I guess nothing is ever perfect. :(
