Pros And Cons Of Wood Vs Composite Decking

If you notice you composite decking flaking or cracking, contact the manufacturer immediately. Aluminum plate has a lot of advantages but there are also a few disadvantages that does come with the product. Aluminum plate does not come in standard colors like composite. That means once we form the panels it would have to be painted. Hardwood decking is made from slow growing deciduous trees which makes it a more expensive option to hardwood as the trees take a long time to grow and therefore the process takes longer. Hardwood decking comes in a range of colours and finishes which will suit both traditional and contempory settings.

Most expansion and contraction in wood is across the width of the board. The movement along the length of the board is so small that it is usually largely ignored as inconsequential. For many thousands of years, carpenters have contended with expansion and contraction across the width of wood boards and learned how to compensate for this wood movement. So, while 100% recycled composites can be somewhat "greenish", they typically have been found by life-cycle studies to be a lot less green than most common deck woods, even treated wood. And this difference is even more pronounced if the natural wood is harvested from managed forests.

The Disadvantages Of Composite Decking

But, if you stain your deck, you will have to periodically re-stain it to keep it new looking, just as you would a wood deck. So, you end up with a choice, a faded, old-looking but clean deck or the chore and expense of regular re-staining to keep it looking new. Uncapped composite decking is porous and can be stained. Once capstock decking has faded, that is the color you must live with.

The Market Growth Of Composites

Replies To 6 Advantages And 6 Disadvantages Of Composite Decking

One surprising substance that’s not so easy to clean comes from a chalk line, a tool that’s used to build composite decking. This is one of the topics we get asked about the most and something that is easy to fix.

Pros And Cons Of Softwood, Composite And Hardwood Decking

• While it is easy to purchase cheaper types of decking, labour and maintenance costs add up after a while.
• Unlike wood, which you can sand and refinish, composite decking can’t be refinished.
• As composite decking does not need any treatment the cost evens out over time.
• Your only option is to shell out a few bucks to replace the damaged plank completely.
• Composite decking can be slightly pricier than many other types of decking.

By comparison to real wood, however, composite materials are a distant second on the greenness scale. All composites also use an enormous amount of power to manufacture and the generation of that electricity is a primary source of greenhouse gases. This "embedded energy" as it is called by environmental folks, detracts substantially from the products' greenness. Con­sis­tent­ly and accurately extruding a product – basically, cramming a hot, doughy mixture of plastic and wood through a specially shaped opening is hard enough. Wood and plastic typically make up roughly 85% to 95% of the ingredients' total weight. Most of the wood consists of cast-offs from flooring factories.

Many of the techniques of installing composite decks are taken from the vinyl siding professionals. But, there are still many problems that have not yet been conquered. You can cure fading and discoloration on some composite decks by staining them using a specially formulated composite deck stain.

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