Composite Decking

Author
Discussion

red_slr

Original Poster:

17,123 posts

188 months

Wednesday 22nd March 2017
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Looking at having a deck installed at home and running it right up to the patio doors and kitchen door.

How slippery is this stuff when it gets wet? At our old house we had a normal timber deck and it was basically a death trap for 6 months of the year.

Is the composite decking any better? The supplier says it is..... hmm....

jlee

167 posts

88 months

Wednesday 22nd March 2017
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I looked at it butit was too expensive. Plus I quite like looking after the timber decking I have. I have a low power Karcher K2 jetwash so just run that over it once a year and also purchased a barrel of decking oil and use a broom to put it on. So far so good.
We dont have any over hanging trees, but my mother does and as soon as they get a bit slimy then you'll go arse over tit. I've fallen over a couple of times on it and it's not nice.

joshcowin

6,775 posts

175 months

Wednesday 22nd March 2017
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Millboard is a good product

GT03ROB

13,210 posts

220 months

Wednesday 22nd March 2017
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joshcowin said:
Millboard is a good product
2nd that

KarlMac

4,457 posts

140 months

Wednesday 22nd March 2017
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We sell a range of composite decking / fencing. I'd avoid personally as i'm not convinced the extra cost is worth the benefits.

To answer the original question - it's pretty slippy.

jimmyjimjim

7,329 posts

237 months

Wednesday 22nd March 2017
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I've a composite deck; trex. Had it 7 years or more (length of house ownership plus however long it was there previously).

I've washed it a couple of times and never had an issue with it being slippery or degrading in any way. I personally think it's quite grippy - more so than wood.

Of course, I live in pretty much the driest place on earth (summer at least) and I've no idea what it would be like with tree sap or mold on it.

essayer

9,011 posts

193 months

Wednesday 22nd March 2017
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What sort of price is composite (Millboard, say) vs hardwood?

northwest monkey

6,370 posts

188 months

Thursday 23rd March 2017
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KarlMac said:
To answer the original question - it's pretty slippy.
And bloody noisy / creaky in my experience. Easy to keep clean though with a quick jetwash, but other than that if I was having decking it would be wood every time.

bogie

16,344 posts

271 months

Thursday 23rd March 2017
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essayer said:
What sort of price is composite (Millboard, say) vs hardwood?
Looked into it a couple of years back, and at the time hardwood pretty similar to best composite. In the end decided to lose the 10 year old decking and go with paving instead. Just fed up of the yearly maintenance. Now just jet wash the paving every April.

PositronicRay

26,959 posts

182 months

Thursday 23rd March 2017
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bogie said:
essayer said:
What sort of price is composite (Millboard, say) vs hardwood?
Looked into it a couple of years back, and at the time hardwood pretty similar to best composite. In the end decided to lose the 10 year old decking and go with paving instead. Just fed up of the yearly maintenance. Now just jet wash the paving every April.
This, unless your after a "quick fix" then the cheapest decking available.

GT03ROB

13,210 posts

220 months

Thursday 23rd March 2017
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essayer said:
What sort of price is composite (Millboard, say) vs hardwood?
Put ours down in summer of 2015 & was around #60/m2 I think. It's done 2 winters now & still looks good as new, no staining or mould growth, it doesn't seem slippy when wet.

drmotorsport

739 posts

242 months

Thursday 23rd March 2017
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I've got some solid composite stuff from EDecks which is definitely an improvement on the previous wood on my north facing decking. When clean and wet it's no more slippery than paving slabs, but when it gets green over the winter it still pretty lethal. They do need jet washing a couple of times a year but that's the only maintenance.

Millboard is the best stuff out there but surprisingly thick boards.

-Pete-

2,892 posts

175 months

Thursday 23rd March 2017
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As an aside, I have softwood decking which I installed 6 years ago, I also looked at hardwood and composite.

It only needs to be jetwashed once every 2-3 years to keep it from getting slippery - I use an Alto pressure washer with rotary brush attachment. The reason is that it's only grooved on one side, and that side is face-down as recommended by deck board manufacturers. If you have grooves face-up then they accumulate dirt and fungal growth, which will make them slippery.

Judging by it's condition, I expect it to last another 10+ years. This being PH there will be someone along soon to say I'm wrong wink so I'll just say if you're sceptical and have offcuts of decking board, try leaving them outside until next spring (you'll need to mark them, or screw them to a baton, one face-up, the other face-down), then make your own mind up.