Trex material shredded - what could cause this?

[Greg_R]

My wife and I are moving and were out looking at homes the other day.  On one home they had a large deck made with Trex (or similar looking plastic decking material).  However, one of the steps up to the deck was completely eroded (top looks like they took a sandblaster to it).  It was in an area with a lot of roof run-off (dripping onto the board).  Has anyone seen this happen before?  I thought the whole point of Trex stuff was the durability (because it certainly isn't cheap!).

 

[nickao]

Certain runs of Trex does rot(flake, chip, deteriorate). I am so glad I talked my customers out of it and always went with real wood.

http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS214742+16-Jan-2009+PRN20090116

 

[Greg_R]

nickao, looking at that chewed up deck made me happy that I went with Ipe at our current home.

 

[Daviddubya]

I know of a couple of cases where Trex supplied new material to replace entire decks because of a manufacturing issue that caused the decking to deteriorate.  But they did not pay the labor to remove and replace the deck.  I have used Trex on some decks, and prefer not to work with it.  It is heavy, fexible and expands with temperature changes.  Also twice the price of redwood in AZ.

 

[WarnerConstCo.]

Trex is the worst there is, junk.

Correct deck, Azek, Fiberon are nice choices.

I can't ever find someone from the general public that would prefer hard woods over composites though.

I like wood, I like getting paid for installing the high dollar composites though!!

 

[robtonya]

I found these screws that load into a framing nailer for deck installation. They are called ballstic screws. I was wondering if anyone had heard of them, or used them. Here are some links to the product.

http://www.911-nails.com/  these are by UFO

http://www.nextag.com/hitachi-ballistic-screws/shop-html  These are Hitachi

If I installed decking all day long, I would take a good look at these.

 

[JayStPeter]

Someone could've tried to clean a stain with a power washer.

 

[jakiiski]

I found these screws that load into a framing nailer for deck installation. They are called ballstic screws. http://www.nextag.com/hitachi-ballistic-screws/shop-html  These are Hitachi

Skip the Hitachi ones on outdoor usage, they are only electro coated. That is a useless protection for outdoor usage, it has to be either stainless steel from start or at least hot dipped or otherwise more durably coated. The other source seemed to have both SS and and some other "dark gray" coated (whatever that means, but at least they listed outdoor usage).

- J

 

[butzla]

I found these screws that load into a framing nailer for deck installation. They are called ballstic screws. I was wondering if anyone had heard of them, or used them. Here are some links to the product.

http://www.911-nails.com/  these are by UFO

http://www.nextag.com/hitachi-ballistic-screws/shop-html  These are Hitachi

If I installed decking all day long, I would take a good look at these.

I think the only way to install composite decking is with hidden fasteners.  Screws and nails always seen to "mushroom" at the heads.

 

[Daviddubya]

I think the only way to install composite decking is with hidden fasteners.  Screws and nails always seen to "mushroom" at the heads.

Pre-drilling and using deck screws works pretty well in my experience.  I have used composite deck screws from McFeely's, designed with a special thread to suck the excess material into the hole.  They do the trick but are really difficult to drive, IMHO.  I revert to pre-drilling, even with composite screws.