Real Wood Or Composite Wood

Should You Get Wood Or Composite Decking?

Unlike real wood, you can’t simply change the color by picking from a large selection of stains. For some homeowners with a clear vision of how they want their deck to look, this could be a deal-breaker.

Is Composite Decking Cheaper Than Wood Decking?

What's The Right Choice For Your Deck?

“Often people fall into the hope that their deck is going to look like floorboards inside,” says Rod Aulburn, owner of Sydney company Get Decked Out. The deck pictured here was built using capped Fiberon boards in Ipe with the dining zone picked out in Tudor. Most timber decking alternatives are known as ‘composite’ decking, and are a wood-plastic hybrid. These include brand names such as ModWood, Trex , CleverDeck and Ekodeck. Other alternatives are fibre-cement decking boards, and timber that’s been chemically modified to resist weathering and decay.

• Now, if you plan to do all the maintenance on your wooden deck yourself , a wooden deck may still be cheaper than composite decking material.
• Aluminium composite decking panels which contain wooden starch and plastic .
• This is due to the fact that the better part of the composite mixture (around 60 to 80%) is made of pieces of wood.
• Gaining in popularity are composite decking materials, composed primarily of a mix of recycled plastic and wood fibers.
• Further, advancements in this type of decking have made its look-and-feel downright attractive, by many accounts.

One of the most important things to consider when choosing your decking is how much maintenance you’re prepared to put into it. For most homeowners, the key benefit of composite wood is its lack of maintenance.

The cost of installing a new patio depends on the material used to construct the patio and whether any leveling or groundwork is needed before installation. A patio measuring 16 feet by 20 feet will vary in cost from $2,500 to $9,500 depending on the materials used and the labor needed.

If you are considering selling your property in the coming years, it can be a good idea to consider the ROI for a deck vs. a patio. Your choice in building materials will obviously contribute to the costs.

What Is The Most Durable Decking Material?

One area where composites come out ahead is they can more easily be bent to form curved deck sections. To extend the life of a wood deck, homeowners must regularly paint, stain or seal the decking to defend against moisture. Composites, on the other hand, only require sweeping or washing to keep the boards looking good. We installed composite decking but first sign of rain and there is water stain Mark’s all over it.Could you tell me why this is?. The staining seems to be coming though the paint from the wood below but it can’t be mould as it’s too new, any idea what it is & how to treat it please?

Whats In Composite Decking?

So, if you ever plan to sell your house, choosing hardwood decking will allow you to get the most for your home's resale value. All you have to do with your composite decking is power-wash it every year. This keeps it clean and in good condition, no other work required.

Even if factoring in professional labor to do the work for you it would be a fraction of the absurd price. One quick point of clarification- most, but not all, decks use lumber for the substructure of a deck. Trex provides another option called "Elevations", a steel deck framing for your composite deck. I have a 20-year old+ pressure-treated wooden deck and all I've ever done to it is power wash it biannually and apply Thompson's WaterSeal Clear Wood Protector. Yes, there are some splinters in the decking, but there are no major cracks or splits. It's a wood and where I grew up we were told to expect splinters when working with outdoor wood of any type.

After our list, we set out an extensive list of example products you can check out. Both wood and composite decks can be customized in color, but the amount of work required is vastly different between the two. At Keystone Custom Decks, we have seen composite decking live up to its hype. Unless they are abused or mistreated, composite materials do not scratch over time.