Decking material for new deck

I'm in the planning stages of a deck, and was hoping to get some opinions from people who have been there, done that.

The deck will be mounted to the back of the house, and will have areas for eating/relaxing and will also partially encircle a 18x33 above ground pool. I'm unsure of exactly how big it's going to be, but I think it will be between 700-800 sq ft by the time it's all said and done. The deck is on the south side of my house, with no shade at all during the majority of the day. My siding is "clay" colored, so the decking/stain will have to be some sort of brown/cedar color.

It will have a PT wood frame, and I'm going to use some composite/vinyl type material for the railings, but I'm not sure about the decking yet. I'm using some sort of hidden fastener system regardless of the type of decking. My options:

1. 2x6 PT. Cheapest option, probably strongest too. Downside is the knots and the maintenance. If I go this route, I'm going to put a roundover bit on the router and round the edges off so it looks like decking.

2. Prime grade PT decking boards - My Lowes has some really nice decking boards, and I'm leaning this direction. 16 foot boards are about 16 bucks, and there are very few knots. The maintenance will suck, but I don't mind pressure washing and restaining a flat surface. Spindles for the railing, on the other hand, suck.

3. Some sort of composite - Price is a big issue. I can swing the Trex @$40/ 16 ft board, but not the Azek PVC @80/ board. The Trex is the Enhance line, which is capped, so that should decrease/eliminate the mold issue, but I'm not convinced the cap won't separate from the core. I'm also worried about heat retention. In full sun, it's going to bake, especially if it's darker brown. Then there's the fading.

Thoughts? What's on your deck? Would you do it again? I know of the old Trex mold issues, but I think that has been fixed with the new stuff. I hope.

 

My in laws have dark concrete around their pool and it gets stupid hot. I would stay as light as possible when bare feet are involved.

 

I'm replacing my deck next spring hopefully. My plan is to get decking from a lumber yard that's not Lowe's or Home Depot. They seem to have better quality. I'll also probably space my joists at 16" so I can use 1" decking.

 

I just re-did the deck boards on my 500+ sf deck. It is in full sun about 5 hrs a day, 11 am till 4 pm. The original deck was 16' cedar 2x6 decking boards. They lasted over 30 years. There were two problems with them: First, the previous owner did not want gaps so he had them installed butting up against each other. Second, they used galvanized nails. Since the water sat on the deck the wood began to soften especially at the ends and nail holes. The constant dampness on the boards helped to deteriorate the nails. I've been pulling and changing soft boards for a few years and finally got tired of it.

Looked at box store 2x6 cedar and it was poor quality. Local lumber yard ordered 75 12' and 20 8' 2x6 cedar decking boards. The price was higher than HD but reasonable as long as I picked it up at his siding.

I installed with "lifetime" guaranteed decking screws, gapped them at a 1/4", and sealed with clear Thompsons water seal. Hopefully I'll get 30 years out of it...

KaptJaq

 

I did mine with 5 quarter deck boards on 2 by 10 sister ed 16 inch on center. 2 inch lifetime screws counter sunk flush. I also ran them at 45 degree angle so that I would not have but joints. Deck has full south west exposure. On really cold night 20 below or better you can still hear screws pop sounds like a 22 being fired. 8 years later it could be really stained again. when you build your railing build them in sections so to wash or stain remove 3 bolts take section out lean against post there you go. but I store cords of wood on that deck so did not want expensive decking..

 

I put a deck on well over 10 years ago and opted for Trex, the reddish brown color. Most often I don't walk on my deck barefoot. No pool for us. However; when I have walked on it barefoot at the height of the day, it's cooking on the feet. Not radiating though. Which was a concern I had. Each year I simply power wash the deck.

Couple of complaints I have with Trex. Grease stains. If you are eating on your deck, it's next to impossible to avoid spills. Depending on what you spill, I've found that the stains are impossible to get out. Second, the color has faded some. Other than that, I feel I'll get another 10-20 years or more out of this stuff.

 

I bought a piece of "saddle" colored Trex, and laid it in the backyard in the sun yesterday. I wanted to see how hot it got. Yesterday was a perfect day...70 degrees and sunny all afternoon. By 4 pm you couldn't walk comfortably on it, way too hot. Guess I can cross that off my list. Maybe a lighter color composite, but I'm leaning pretty strongly towards wood at this point.

 

Skip the vinyl spindles. The new hot and in thing is metal with a wood top. Looks great imo.



For decking, go wood. You still have to wash composite. Especially if in the shade.

 

How about a higher grade wood like Redwood or Spanish cedar? More than PT but much nicer. The PT wood will cup and twist more than good quality wood imo.

 

wood, tried and true. 5/4 pt decking, cost effective and replaceable/fixable down the road. I like the wood/metal idea, we used wood rails with anodized aluminum round spindles, modern look.

 

Those are some nice railings.. if my wife sees that I will have another project!

 

Nice looking rails. Where did you find those?

 

I Google image searched. They are not mine but I see alot of my customers revamping 30yr old decks with these types of railings and it looks stellar when done right.

 

Not to confuse everyone but we did a stair job in an apartment complex in "Thermally modified" southern yellow pine. It was beautiful stuff. We used 2'x6" material instead of the 5/4" x 6" material. The 5/4 material was clearer than the 2x material. Left to weather the deck boards will become a nice grey. It is better than treated because it does not have any chemicals in it. It is put in a giant microwave oven and cooked to alter the cell structure to be able to be used as an exterior decking material. And all you guys in the south know that Southern Yellow pine is some hard stuff. I believe the company was out of South Carolina but not sure.
Google "thermally modified wood" and you'll see some examples. I don't believe the Lowe's or HD sell it. At least not around here. My contractor sales rep showed it to me and help me sell the job. The owner of the apartment complex didn't like it because it had "too many knots". So, we bought $40k for clear redwood. About 4 times the price as the thermally modified SYP. Boy, was that stuff nice. I made a bunch of flower boxes and benches from the fall offs.

 

My parents are redoing their wood deck with a composite. I know in Florida, that trex or comosite gets death hot. As in you'll burn your feet if you walk on it if it's sunny. It warps then too.

 

My front deck is constructed out of redwood and has held up nice for the last 10 years by putting nothing more than a coat of linseed oil on it every spring.
Redwood might cost more but the wood is soft and holds up to moisture very good and does not leave splinters in your feet if you walk on it bare foot. I cut the cost on the deck on the back of the house and used PT 2x6 for decking and I really wish I would have spent the extra money and went with redwood on that deck as well. The PT wood likes to warp and even though it is PT is still leaves splinters and has not weathered very well compared to the redwood.