After 8 years of living in our home with no deck we're finally having one built. We looked into the various synthetic decking products and decided to go with Fiberon Horizon IPE. They're dropping the materials off on Friday and hopefully it will get built next week. I'm not building it myself; a local guy, the fire chief in my town, is doing it. Just wanted to hear others opinions/experiences with the different synthetic decking products.
This... Even the medium grey stuff will burn your feet. Let us know how the fiberon works. Supposedly it stays cooler and doesn't burn your feet.
Where do you get that stuff at? I want to add on to my back porch/ramp and am thinking synthetic is the way to go.
That stuff should last a VERY long time. Is he building the structural support out of good, ground contact rated, pressure treated wood?
Boards can expand by width in the sun. Store in shade until installing. Space apart using manufacturing recommendation. I've seen boards installed with minimal gaps. In the summer, they are tight up against each other and don't let water drain too easily. Make sure span between joists is code and meets manufacturing recommendation. I have also seen older construction with 18" joist spacing and some sagging deck boards. Having very little required maintenance required is a great feature of composites.
I built a deck for someone about 7 years ago using trex. I went to pick up one of the boards that was laying in the sun and burnt my hand. Til this day, on my right hand by the base of my thumb there is still a mark where me skin " melted" into the groove on the side that the fastening clips go into.
Where in NH are you? I'm just outside Manchvegas and I got it from Benson's in Londonderry. They and East Coast Lumber in Hampstead had the best pricing.
It's going to be basically a ground level deck with no railings. one step then the deck. He's using PT.
Fortunately or unfortunately, however you look at it, our house will cast a large shadow over the majority of the deck when the sun is hottest, from early afternoon through evening. We will only get full, direct sun on the deck in the morning until early afternoon so I'm hoping it doesn't get too hot. If it does we'll just wear flip flops.
Here's a pic I found online of the Fiberon Horizon IPE. I'll post some of my finished deck when it's done. \
I'm in Hillsboro - far away from most of the retailers they show. But they do show one in warner which is 15-20 miles from me.
That is pretty much how my house is situated with the sun. With trees along the back property line, and a willow on the south side of the house, once they leaf out the sun only hits the back porch from 10-2.
I put Trex on the deck about 15 years ago and it's still looking like new. Pressure treated wood got split and splintery, and it always needed to be stained. The Trex does get hot mostly because of its southern exposure. To me, hot is better than splinters.
The fiberon stuff he's using is designed to not get so hot like Trex or other brands. Or so I've read.
I didn't know that. Deck's been done for about a week but of course it's been rainy and cloudy for the last week so we haven't been able to enjoy it yet. I can take some pics when the weather gets warmer. I have to paint the bulkhead and sand/spaypaint our patio table this week too. Summer's almost here; lots of projects.
