Wood Deck Building
|Wood Deck Building – Part of the means of building a deck is deciding which materials to use for the decking. Basically, you’ve two choices – wood or composite. In this article, I’ll share the pros and cons of each one type to help you pick the right one to your deck. The main difference between wood and composite decking may be the quantity of maintenance required. Wood decking requires more upkeep than composite, but looks nicer. The companies who manufacture composite decking are doing their very best to make their product look like real wood, but so far haven’t achieved it. I personally don’t believe they’ll ever be able to match the good thing about real wood. Because of the additional time necessary to maintain wood decking, you need to ask yourself if you’ve the additional time forced to keep a wood deck sealed and seeking good. If you DO have the time and so are prepared to stand in your deck, great! Go with wood.
If, however, you do not have additional time or wouldn’t like to commit to sealing a wood deck once or twice 12 months, composite could be a good choice. Even though wood decks require more upkeep, there is a form of wood which you can use for decking which requires hardly any or no upkeep. That wood is cedar. I’ve actually laid wood decking and done absolutely NOTHING to it and had it last for many years without any problems. Cedar is naturally resistant to rain, snow, and sunlight. It doesn’t warp or twist, and still have hardly any tendency to check on or cup.
The only drawback with cedar decking left unsealed is the fact that is will turn gray over time. If you are instead of this look, it is possible to prefer to seal it once or twice per year. It may still “gray”, nonetheless it is going to take longer to do so. Actually ALL wood decks will turn gray over time, if you do not apply sealer every few months, that is a large amount of work. Composite decking, alternatively, is virtually maintenance free. Once it’s laid down, it certainly can’t change much even through extreme weather. Some composite deck colors will fade over several years, though the fading is uniform, so you won’t really notice it happening.
There are a few disadvantages to presenting composite. First, composite decking is more expensive than wood. This may be a problem if you’ve budget constraints. If you aspect in the fee savings of not buying sealer for years, it could normalize the fee increase somewhat. Another drawback to using composite decking may be the possibility of the merchandise failing. Just like any man-made product, composite decking may be faulty. A few years ago, one major composite decking manufacturer create some defective material. This led to many decks going bad which created a class action lawsuit. Even with compensation provided to consumers, many were stuck with high replacement costs. This doesn’t mean every composite deck product is going to have problems, it is just a reminder that it COULD happen.
Overall, wood or composite decks are great. You just need to decide between a gray deck, a wood deck that will need maintenance, or possibly a composite deck which requires no upkeep, but is more expensive and contains the possibility to look awry.