We are doing some research into replacing an aging outdoor deck.  The costs to repair it and repaint it are so high that it makes sense to simply recycle the old deck and replace the old redwood.  One of the first decisions when redoing a deck is what type of material to use, real wood or a composite decking material. Both materials cost about the same, with composite material slightly more expensive.

Real Wood

Appearance – Beautiful look, if kept up.

Maintenance – Requires re-staining or sealing every 1 to 4 years.

Installation – More expensive thick tropical woods like Ipe require special saw blades, drilling, and deck screws to install.

Reliability – Many types of woods are very reliable and termite proof. Real wood is also best at preventing slipping.

Eco Friendliness – FSC certified woods are green and sustainable

photo credit: Velo Steve

Composite Decking Material (Timbertech, Trex, Evergrain, Fiberon etc)

Appearance - Not as nice as real wood, but improving.

Maintenance - Lower maintenance? Periodic washing to remove dirt, mold, mildew. Chemicals may be involved. May require some refinishing after many years.

Installation - Normal installation.

Reliability - Mold and mildew problems require maintenance and pressure washing. Splinters, fading, and scratching are still issues. Suntan lotion can stain it. Slipping issues when wet.

Eco Friendliness – Many are made with wood pulp and petroleum products such as plastic or vinyl. Some are made from wood mill waste and polyethylene (PE or HDPE) from recycled plastic products. TimberTech is 12% post-consumer recycled plastic. Fiberon has up to 74% recycled content and up to 10% reclaimed content on products. The problem area is that they are not very recyclable after it has been installed.

Cost – May cost more than real wood.

If you want to go with Composite, you should think about going all the way to Carefree building products, 100% recycled plastic lumber products that can be recycled themselves. There are also PVC or polyethylene plastic products that are better than Composites at resisting the elements.

Some localities require Class A fireproof materials, so that alone many limit your choices to a certain kind of decking.

The biggest issue is whether composite materials can maintain their ‘look’ for a long period of time, perhaps decades. One look at the Bob Villa forums indicates lots of composite problems. As the Sierra Club said: “These wood composite products may save our current generation some time, but may have a negative impact on future generations when they try to dispose of them.”  Trex technical support told us to trash extra Trex pieces as they do not recycle them.

FSC certified Natural wood seems to be the best bet. IPE, Douglas Fir, California redwood, and Mahogany are good bets. Avoid pressure treated wood as it contains chemicals like chromated copper arsenate and cannot be recycled.

Construction debris can make up over a quarter of a landfill. Here are some tips for reducing construction waste from our recent remodeling project.

We have covered donating unwanted items in the past.  Craigslist proved very useful in giving away old kitchen cabinets, countertops, extra wood, and many other items.  We also moved into our garage for much more organized storage.

Our contractor was instrumental in diverting old items toward for use on other projects he was working on. Many items went to a local church.

We were left with extra construction supplies such as adhesives and sealers, parts, etc. We returned as many as we could to vendors and gave the extras back to our contractor for future projects.  No sense in adding stuff that would never be used to our storage space.

I have found Build It Green a great resource during our remodeling. This site is funded by public and private sources in California. Their Green Building Guidelines and checklists are very helpful.

Also very useful is the Green Product Directory for construction supplies and suppliers. They also have a list of Certified Professionals that have completed training.