Building a deck

[River]

I asked Trex to send me their warranty, it is a 25 year warranty for the new product. The problem is that they don't cover environmental condition such as mildew. Does that mean they will say it failed due to humidity ? I am going to try and get something in writing about installing it in Hawaii. I really don't want to have to replace my deck every few years. I was also looking at redwood or cedar, but the thought of all of that maintenance make me cringe.

Rob Tucker how old is your deck?

[Rob Tucker]

My deck is about 12 years 0old. Perfect condition with no painting involved. I know of some ocean side restaurant decks done with Rumber 25 years ago. No maintenance.

Rumber is mostly used for low boy equipment trailer decks. They have been used to trailer D-9 for over 25 years without replacement. The basic lifespan answer is to toss a car tire out in your yard and see how long it lasts.

[Hunt Stoddard]

Trex and other composites are also quite expensive and there may be no guarantee you can get more of it of the same color/style five or eight years down the line when you want to expand your deck. I ran into that problem when I damaged a board on a pale blue deck a few years ago. It was no longer available. Trex is also very saggy; you have to build on 12 inch centers. (You can probably tell I don't like trex.) On the other hand I've seen oceanside stairways made of trex that seem to be lasting forever.

My personal choice is to cover decks and use painted or opaquely stained borate fir. It's cheap and strong. You can run into problems with it since fir can splinter. Nothing produces bigger, nastier splinters than worn fir. And of course sometimes you don't want a covered deck (lanai).

[bluesboy]

i wouldn't have anything uncovered on the east side. period.