Redwood or Composite Decks?

Answered by Brendan ~ December 5th, 2010 | 4 Comments » | Respond to this question

I love the look of redwood decks, but the lack of maintenance of composite materials. Which will last longer on a sunny east side in Corvallis, Oregon–oiled redwood or composite decking?

Pauline T. ~ Corvallis, Oregon

Brendan Fowler

There is no doubt about it, natural wood looks great on decks, but it needs maintenance every other year at a minimum to look good.  The question is, which will last longer?  If you maintain a wood deck it will last for 20-30years, provided that the framing does not fail.  The same should go for a composite deck, however there are no 20-30 year old composite decks to see if they really last that long.  I have fixed many decks, and decks fail because of rot due to water in contact with wood.  Most of the repairs would be necessary regardless of what the surface of the deck was made of.  What I am trying to say is that no mater what you use on the surface of your deck be sure to build it in such a way that will prevent the framing from rotting before the surface needs replacing.  I believe that properly maintained wood decking will last just as long as composite decking.

Tags: , , ,

  

4 Responses to “Redwood or Composite Decks?”

  1. RLTarch RLTarch says:
    December 5, 2010 at 8:35 am

    Good advice, Brendan. Can you take this a little further and talk about the differences between wood species for this use? Redwood, for example, while expensive, is a far better choice than the PT pine junk sold by the home improvement stores, and probably has a similar life span to composites.

    Reply
  2. Bob Bob says:
    December 6, 2010 at 9:45 am

    I really think that people need to stop using redwood for decks. This dwindling resource is too precious to use for suburban decks and hot tubs, especially when so many composite materials are available.

    Reply
  3. Tim Tim says:
    December 7, 2010 at 6:11 am

    It depends on where you get the redwood…there are companies like Mendocino Redwood that are FSC-certified, meaning they adhere to some pretty high environmental standards. And they plant more trees than they use.

    Reply
  4. michael baker michael baker says:
    December 11, 2010 at 6:21 pm

    i was sealing a lot of decks until they changed the formula. your composite deck still gets gray and needs to be cleaned. If you look down them across the deck you will see they sway from Joyce to Joyce there’s a dip. Ive also noticed peaple spend time on a wood deck on your composite deck peaple walk out look and go back in. There hot and not comfortable wood is more comfortable. you can git away with just cleaning a wood deck for about 15 year. ceder is used because it lasts unsealed peaple who sell sealer wont agree but if you don’t seal it and just clean it it will prove its self if you don’t agree seal it after a couple years I’ve Sean decks left uncleaned for more then 20 years and still looked good after cleaning. if you do anything to them its more for looks unless you’ve met one of the many sales peaple who wont to sell you sealer or a service or the people who wont to appear thy have there good sense i now advice thy got from someone selling something.they like to gloat how much the know build your deck and enjoy it. most under carriages are pressure treated tops are ceder you also can build 3 decks for the price of one composite deck

    Reply

Leave a Comment

Search Questions:

Categories

From the Reliable Remodeler Directory

You may be interested in these Oregon Home Improvement Contractors: