At Home In The Woods

[jinman]

You should not have a problem on a screen porch in the shade but those plastics are know for failure and looking horrible in the coming years.

I have a neighbor with a floating dock made of aluminum with a Trex deck. It's been exposed to the Texas sun for about 10 years and still looks like the day it was delivered. I think the brand, how you support it, and the way fasteners are installed has a lot to do with the success of a Trex deck. Other copycat brands may not be as durable. Certainly, you can't put down Trex in the sun and use joists on 24" centers. 16" or even 12" joists will keep the Trex from sagging. As you said, in the shade, all those problems don't exist.

At a local zoo, they have a raised walkway over an area that is supposed to be like an African Savannah. The walkway was built with donations and is made of traditional treated lumber. There's a lot of cupping of the wood and some loose fasteners in the decking, but the walkway seems okay and plenty strong. Visitors in wheelchairs and power chairs don't seem to have a lot of problems with it even though it surely is showing wear. One thing the zoo did was to sell deck boards when they were first building the walkway. People could buy a deck board or several. They engraved the names of the donors into the planks they had purchased to form a permanent record of folk's generosity.

 

[patrick_g]

Jim (et al) I'm not particularly in love with Trex but I have never seen a problem with it installed correctly using approved methods and fasteners. Copycat brands? Well, you pays your money and you takes your chances. One of the chief failure methods is folks trying to span too great a distance or saving a lot of money on fasteners. In summer heat or hot sun the stuff holds up to loads and lasts a very long time if done correctly. It really doesn't weather very much and looks (to me) just as bad when new as when aged. I prefer the look of real wood but... It is getting harder to get good wood. I have seen lots of disasters with pressure treated wood bowing, cupping, etc. or having so many splinters it had to be covered with outdoor carpet to avoid splinters in bare feet.

I have a project where I might bite the bullet and use Trex. I want to build a dock out into one of my larger ponds and put a screened-in tea room out at the end, maybe with a trap door in the floor for fishing. If I can't get acceptable real wood then I know that Trex will git 'er done and outlast me (just not have the *** appeal of proper wood.).

Pat

 

[Obed]

The boards on the porch are all installed. Next is the deck half of the back porch/deck. I notched a board to start the picture frame around the deck portion.


The middle post on the deck has warped noticeably.


The post leans outward in addition to bowing due to how the post was notched out where the double rim joist is attached to the outside edge of the porch.

 

[dstig1]

Yowza. Any way to replace it at this point? It may be painful, but it will be easier now than looking at it for years to come. Something has to happen with that, as it really won't work well as is...

 

[MotorSeven]

Yep, I'd pull it and replace it. It's too bad the "graded" lumber we get these days would have been sold as culls 30 years ago.

 

[clemsonfor]

Yea id replace that thing. Look for the 4x4 with the most rings per inch. DONT but teh ones with like 5 rings on the whole end.

Also look to see if you can find one that is already somewhat dry in the pile and not warped.

 

[tony Cecil]

Obed----I was wondering about the tomatoes? and we had the largest harvest we ever had......For some reason it still takes a can (per pot) of canned tomatoes to improve the taste...We`r freezing many gallons of Okra Soup.....Tony

 

[Obed]

Obed----I was wondering about the tomatoes? and we had the largest harvest we ever had......For some reason it still takes a can (per pot) of canned tomatoes to improve the taste...We`r freezing many gallons of Okra Soup.....Tony

Tony, our tomatoes are just starting to come in. We don't can them so we will have more than we can use.
Obed

 

[clemsonfor]

Wow i been eating tomatoes for 8 weeks or so?

 

[Obed]

Wow i been eating tomatoes for 8 weeks or so?

Our first tomatoes ripened a few weeks ago but only occassionally. Recently the production has finally increased in quantity.

Obed