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Here we will share our years of experience with composite decking products,
both good and bad. We are not here to throw any manufacturers “under the bus”
so to say, but there are some things you should know before making your
decision regarding which product to use to surface your new deck.
At Mark of Excellence we have been designing and building custom decks for over
15 years. Over the years we have witnessed the deck industry grow in leaps and
bounds. Much of this growth is due to the products that are now available to
the customer. For many years, wood decks comprised of either Pressure Treated
lumber, Cedar, Redwood, Mahogany and even exotic species such as Ipe (Pau-Lope)
and Cambara were considered the norm. Obviously maintenance became a big issue.
Maintaining a wood deck is not only costly and time consuming, but your deck
will never look as good as it did that first season when it was installed. The
market needed a better product and the suppliers answered with vigor! On came
the composites!
Composite decking has been available for many years and we have installed
almost every brand on the market. Over the years we have watched closely to see
just how well the claims of the manufactures would stand up. In most cases the
products performed as they claimed they would, however, the "maintenance free"
claim that was used as the greatest selling point was now being challenged.
Many consumers felt they would never have to do a single thing to their decks
to keep them clean and beautiful, WRONG! So let us clear this up for you here
and now. The term "maintenance free" is strictly targeted at the fact that you
will not have to apply any other products to your deck to keep it from rotting
or breaking down as stated in the products warranty. It isn’t to say that you
will never have to clean your deck! Since composite products are mostly made up
of wood pulp and pvc's, they are porous and still share some of the negative
characteristic of wood. The first generation of composites did a great job of
paving the way for the industry. The problems that arose in these products were
uneven fading of color, mold spots forming all over the deck surface, and the
expansion and contraction factors. Not to mention HEAT! Composites of darker
colors are very hot to walk on a summer day in bare feet. Most are just plain
uncomfortable on hotter days. We have revisited many of our jobs over the years
and started to notice that people kept a pair of sandals near the back door to
walk out on their deck on hot days. The manufacturers answered these complaints
by offering lighter colors and producing decking boards with hollow cores of
various configurations. They also started to put additives into their products
to reduce the potential of mildew growth. This did help, however, the issues
still remained to some degree. Now this isn’t to say that all composites are
created equal, because they are not, nor are we trying to steer you away from
using composites in general. What we are saying is that we have much better
success and much happier clients by using solid PVC’s and Vinyl products that
do not suffer from the same negative characteristics of composites.
Please take a look through our portfolio to see some of the projects we have
designed and built. We look forward to meeting with you at your home where we
will walk you through the design process and further educate you on the
materials available to you.
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