Time to replace front deck and stairs.

[N80]

The front stairs and small deck on my cabin need to be replaced. They are 15 years old. They are made of treated lumber and have not aged well. I've had to replace the treads of the stairs twice in that amount of time. It has had opaque oil based stain on it from the beginning. The treads bow and twist and snap the screws off.

My current plan is to use 6x6 cedar posts that I will cut and mill. I will put them on raised concrete footings. I will likely make the framing and stringers of the best treated lumber I can find. Those parts of the original deck have done fairly well over the 15 years.

My big question is decking material. These steps and deck get full sun from just after sunrise until just before sunset in the summer and this is in South Carolina. That's what does the damage. I really don't want to use treated lumber as I'd like to not be replacing everything every five years.

So I'm considering something like Trex or Azec (maybe spelled wrong, I'm not familiar with it). I have minimal experience with synthetic decking. The best I can tell is that the two big downsides are cost and that in the summer it gets super hot. The expense will be a bitter pill but maybe worth it in the long run. The heat retention might be a different story. I'm not concerned about scratching and staining.

Would appreciate any advice or recommendations.

 

[JJT]

My cedar decks and steps lasted 25 years with an occasional oiling. 10 years ago I replaced the cedar with larch and have been doing an annual oil treatment. I'm betting I get at least 25 years out of the larch. We looked at composite, but I couldn't talk myself into plastic decking at 3 times the cost of real wood. I'm not a fan of pressure treated decking.

The cedar flooring on my covered porch is 30+ years old and still looking great.

 

[domin]

trex is a bit more pricey but has a longer lifespan, i would definitely choose this option

 

[N80]

I haven't looked at Trex yet. Was shying away from composite but just now priced Azek PVC and a 1'x6"x20' board is about $150 (each!). I haven't calculated what I'd need yet but just guessing that would easily be around $3000 for 8-10 steps and a 8'x8' deck at the top.

Update: Looks like Trex is about 1/3 the cost of Azek.

 

[jyoutz]

My cedar decks and steps lasted 25 years with an occasional oiling. 10 years ago I replaced the cedar with larch and have been doing an annual oil treatment. I'm betting I get at least 25 years out of the larch. We looked at composite, but I couldn't talk myself into plastic decking at 3 times the cost of real wood. I'm not a fan of pressure treated decking.

The cedar flooring on my covered porch is 30+ years old and still looking great.

Larch is a regionally available product that isn’t available in most locations.

 

[bdhsfz6]

I've had to replace my treated wood decking twice in the 45 years I've owned my house. It needed replacing again 10 years ago and I decided to spend a bit more this time and use interlocking aluminum planks from Lock Dry:

LockDry® Aluminum Waterproof Decking from Nexan

LockDry® aluminum waterproof decking is a maintenance free deck product that creates a waterproof area under the deck. LockDry® is ideally used for roof decks, 2nd story decks and replacements to underdeck ceilings and composite decking.

www.nexaninc.com

It still looks like it did when I installed it a decade ago, and IMO, well worth the extra $$.

Mine is raised 12" off the ground and another advantage of the aluminum is, it's waterproof. The area under the deck stays completely dry, which protects the framing underneath.

Not a very good pic but you get the idea.

I had planned to replace the treated wood railing as well, but other projects took precedence. Maybe this year.

 

[EddieWalker]

15 years seems like a very short lifespan for a treated deck. Do you have any pictures to show why it failed so quickly?

In my experience, most deck builders are guys that have some experience framing homes, but zero understanding of how a deck is supposed to be built. Most seem to think fasteners can be used to support beams, or they ignore beams and rely on joists to carry the load. Rarely do they use ledger boards and it's very rare to see joist hangers.

I have a deck job in a couple months that used 5/4 treated wood for the decking. It's the worse stuff possible ever since the treatment process changed.

My experience with composite decking has been to give a client a bid with it and another bid using treated 2x6's for the decking. The difference in cost is so significant that I always build the deck with 2x6 decking. Everyone want's composite, nobody wants to pay for it.

I have repaired a few decks with composite decking because it's weak and cannot span very far. Most common repair is to replace the decking with new and add joists between the existing joist for a shorter span.

 

[ultrarunner]

I’m building one right now in the Pacific Northwest with joist hangers 12” on center with composite decking.

I’m hoping this will be my forever deck here.

 

[EscapedSuburbia]

I'm in the process of tearing out a wood deck in the new-to-us house. I hate the maintenance, splinters, and aging of wood decks. I'll replace it with a paver patio just like I did at our last place. Pavers aren't always an option depending on your yard grade, but I'd never do another deck if my yard allowed. Our front deck is Trex. I'm not a fan of the plastic look.

 

[duffer]

I built a wrap around deck using Trex for the decking. The OP is right. It gets really hot in the summer. You can easily burn your feet on it without shoes. One other downside of Trex is that you want a 20' piece. But one piece will be 19'11", the next piece will be 20'1" and the third piece will be 20'1½". You'll have to cut every piece to fit. A real PITA. Composite decking also expands and contracts in length, far more than you would expect. I think more than lumber.

Take a look at the composite decking at HD. Back when I did mine, it was significantly less than Trex and the same stuff. If you use the "hidden" fasteners, check them out on Amazon. They're cheaper than HD, Lowes, lumber yards, and they're the same. I used some this morning to re-position a few boards on my deck.

 

[MotorSeven]

I am in the same boat. My East and West decks do not have roof's and both started showing signs of rot around year 11. The West is 10' off the ground, East does not touch the ground and all lumber was 2x8 and 2x10. Looks like taking the arsenic out of the PT treatment was a bad idea. Random boards have completely rotted thru already.

I had a friend use Larch about 6 years ago on a no roof deck....so far so good. I may check into that along with Trex.

 

[Shawn T. W.]

I looked at a few houses on far Northeastern Tennessee which had Black Locust decking ... Maybe a local option in South Carolina?

Black Locust — Propagate

Black Locust Fast growing timber for the Eastern U.S.

www.propagateag.com

 

[Duds13]

I had my porch done a couple years ago and used Azek decking. It's wrapped on all 4 sides whereas Trex and other brands only wrap 3 sides. Has a very nice look to it. I can't comment on how hot it gets because it is under cover.

 

[jyoutz]

I looked at a few houses on far Northeastern Tennessee which had Black Locust decking ... Maybe a local option in South Carolina?

Black Locust — Propagate

Black Locust Fast growing timber for the Eastern U.S.

www.propagateag.com

Black locust wood is extremely durable, but it would only be available from a local specialty sawmill. Not from the box lumber stores. And probably only in the south central and eastern states.

 

[Shawn T. W.]

Black locust wood is extremely durable, but it would only be available from a local specialty sawmill. Not from the box lumber stores. And probably only in the south central and eastern states.

Yup, probably why I saw it in Tennessee, and OP is in South Carolina ... So should be available ... No idea on costs, but like they use to advertise ... "Let your fingers do the walking" ... Do they still have "yellow pages"?

 

[jyoutz]

Yup, probably why I saw it in Tennessee, and OP is in South Carolina ... So should be available ... No idea on costs, but like they use to advertise ... "Let your fingers do the walking" ... Do they still have "yellow pages"?

Google is the new yellow pages.

 

[FullMetalBucket]

I had two decks built at my last house and my current. Both were built using composite decking. Last house was composite from Home Depot and this house was Trex. As you can imagine Trex was a lot more money. I haven’t seen a difference in durability, though we only had the prior deck for 3 years before we moved.

They do make composite decking that is supposed to be cooler, I don’t know a price comparison though.

Our new deck gets a lot of afternoon sun so I put a pergola on it for some shade as I don’t like roasting anyway.

 

[ultrarunner]

As we speak..

 

[BigBlue1]

We just replaced the decking and railing on our large deck last summer. I believe the deck was about 20 years old. It was treated 1x6 and white PVC railing. While the old decking wasn't in awful condition I got sick of sealing it every other year after a couple times of really challenging sealant application. Apparently Thompson's Water Seal has gone waaaay downhill in quality over the years. Last time it was so filled with waxy residue and took so much product and time to apply that I said never again.

We went with Trex. It has a good reputation here in MN and with a 50 year warranty I figured I'll never have to deal with it again. Of course it is very, very expensive compared to wood and it probably was 50% more last year than it was pre-coof. But it looks great and appears to be a good product. Was quite easy to work with and install other than having to move around 20' boards. It cost way more than I expected it would but at least my cost was less than 50% of what it would have been if I hadn't done the work myself.

Be aware that if you care about a nicely finished look to the stairs it is a LOT more work to install since you need to 'picture frame' them to avoid seeing cut ends. If you don't mind the cut ends showing then its no more work. Our deck has about 14 treads and I had to build extra framing for each one to support the picture frame style, which took a fair amount of work. Looks great in the end though. The framing work to add in support for the picture framing on the steps and the main deck was really the most involved part of things. My miter saw sure earned its keep with all that Trex and aluminum railing cutting!

One other thing that was tricky was trying to work out how to get coverage in full board width without having to rip a piece on one side or the other.That's not really a problem with wood but sure is with composite. I had to 'pad out' framing in one section a bit to get it to work. Without the padding it would have either been 2" too little coverage or 3" overhanging coverage.

Don't have enough experience to weigh in on the summer heat issue. And our deck doesn't get too much full summer sun anyway.

Here are a few pics. It doesn't look too big in them but the main area is just about 40' long and the wide section is 15'.

 

[Duds13]

We just replaced the decking and railing on our large deck last summer. I believe the deck was about 20 years old. It was treated 1x6 and white PVC railing. While the old decking wasn't in awful condition I got sick of sealing it every other year after a couple times of really challenging sealant application. Apparently Thompson's Water Seal has gone waaaay downhill in quality over the years. Last time it was so filled with waxy residue and took so much product and time to apply that I said never again.

We went with Trex. It has a good reputation here in MN and with a 50 year warranty I figured I'll never have to deal with it again. Of course it is very, very expensive compared to wood and it probably was 50% more last year than it was pre-coof. But it looks great and appears to be a good product. Was quite easy to work with and install other than having to move around 20' boards. It cost way more than I expected it would but at least my cost was less than 50% of what it would have been if I hadn't done the work myself.

Be aware that if you care about a nicely finished look to the stairs it is a LOT more work to install since you need to 'picture frame' them to avoid seeing cut ends. If you don't mind the cut ends showing then its no more work. Our deck has about 14 treads and I had to build extra framing for each one to support the picture frame style, which took a fair amount of work. Looks great in the end though. The framing work to add in support for the picture framing on the steps and the main deck was really the most involved part of things. My miter saw sure earned its keep with all that Trex and aluminum railing cutting!

One other thing that was tricky was trying to work out how to get coverage in full board width without having to rip a piece on one side or the other.That's not really a problem with wood but sure is with composite. I had to 'pad out' framing in one section a bit to get it to work. Without the padding it would have either been 2" too little coverage or 3" overhanging coverage.

Don't have enough experience to weigh in on the summer heat issue. And our deck doesn't get too much full summer sun anyway.

Here are a few pics. It doesn't look too big in them but the main area is just about 40' long and the wide section is 15'.

Beautiful looking deck and view from it!