That door came in handy last winter when Handan had to crawl under there for some emergency repairs as the sun was setting on a sub-zero day. You can see the little door we installed near the bottom of the picture above. Composites won’t splinter or rot like Old Rotten Timbers did after a few years of neglect.To remain weather-resistant, wood decks require more care. Composites are more weather-resistant than wood decks.We used Vintage lantern for the outline and Spiced Rum for the main deck, the stairs and the bench. The colors available (especially with Trex Transcend) allow for creative color combinations and tonal contrasts. We only need to clean ours periodically with water and a soft brush and occasionally mild soap. Composites should last longer than wood with far less maintenance.Composites can warp and bend more readily than wood, but as long as the boards are screwed or secured at regular intervals to a sturdy frame, this shouldn’t be an issue.Some composites get slippery when wet, but we haven’t noticed ours to be dangerously slippery.Yep, it does get burn-your-feet hot, but that’s what sandals are for, no? Composite decking gets nuclear hot during sunny summer days.Composite decking molds more readily than wood, however I’ve mostly heard this happening in shady areas.For this reason, we have outdoor carpets under the dining table and lounge area. Oils of all kinds (suntan, cooking, food) are the sworn enemy of composite decks, and I’ve heard first-hand horror stories and read even more online of oil stains that won’t come out. Composite decking stains easily and permanently from oil.(I’m not going to talk about exotic wood decks like Ipe, since so few people have them) Composite decking (especially Trex) is significantly more expensive than cedar or pressure-treated pine.The composite decking is more durable and will require less maintenance than a wood deck, however it is not without its drawbacks. Let’s start with a bird’s eye view…if that bird were perched atop an 8-foot stepladder.Īs a reminder, we built the deck with Trex composite decking boards. We spent all spring and half of the summer getting the deck just right.Īnd once I finished building our DIY Farmhouse Table, our deck was officially complete. The snow melted, and our eyes turned to the new deck.Ĭhairs, carpets, a big umbrella, an even bigger table, accessories, lights, bling and doodads out the wazoo! A promise of spring broken by gale-force Nor’Easters.Įventually Old Man Winter played his last hand and bowed out of the game for another six months.įair Lady Spring took over, and Handan and I emerged from our snow-bound captivity. The shortest month delivered the coldest days. We endured the Napoleonic tantrums of a petulant February. We lived through the lie of longer days in January that hinted at warmer weather but delivered naught but frosted misery. We watched as December froze solid and shattered into January. Instead, we sat through the long and cold winter and awaited spring. I could have called the post, Fall Fashions for the Autumn Deck, wherein I would model all the latest in lumberjock chic while lounging in oak leaves and nibbling on acorns. Unless, you know, you wanted to see pictures of us lounging by a cold and forgotten swimming pool in our long underwear sipping hot chocolate with numb fingers and frozen forced smiles. After a long design phase and an even longer build phase (oh, the promises of a contractor! Two weeks stretched into three months!), our Trex composite deck was structurally finished last fall.īut the trees were bare and the pool was covered and a bitter nip ran through the air.
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