WHAT MATERIAL IS RIGHT FOR MY DECK?

Well, good afternoon, it’s about lunchtime on Friday, backyard Brian here and I’m excited because it’s the first time I get to share a video with you where I am not holding the camera. I’ve got Kendrick back here behind the camera. You can’t see him. But We’ll post some pictures of him a little bit later, but because he’s running the camera for me. I am able to now show you some things that I can’t normally show you and I thought today I would answer one of the biggest questions that I get asked all the time and that is what materials should I use on my deck? People have heard of different composites and wood and people have seen composites and they have seen decks that look really good and decks that don’t look good. Maybe you’ve had all those kinds of questions too, so I thought I would get out there and try to show you guys a couple of things and hopefully, that will help you figure out what’s the best material for your deck.

So I’m going to kind of go in cost order. Now. Everything kind of varies in cost, but you know what’s right for you. May Not be right for somebody else and I’ll stress that at the beginning, that there is no one size fits all. I sometimes recommend that clients use wood. Sometimes I recommend that clients use certain types of composite, sometimes PVC and it really depends on what their goals are for their project and so, and what they really prefer. But the first is kind of what most of us are used to. This is pressure treated lumber. This is an unfinished board and this board can be stained. It doesn’t have to be stained. The wood is treated with a solution and then it dries out and that solution basically keeps it from rotting. And so this material will last a long time. It won’t rot, but what it will do is it’ll start cracking and checking and things in the sun.

And so that’s what a lot of people don’t like. And then if you stain in it, that helps protect against that. But that becomes an every few year maintenance product projects. But it does give you the look of natural wood and, it looks natural. It can look great and it’s pretty cost-effective and so if you’re going to be in a house for maybe a shorter period of time, not such a long time and you want something that’s great for your family, but you don’t want to spend huge amount or you need lots of space and that’s more of a priority for you then the material, then this is a great, a great option. Now the next would that is a more common is called IPEE and this is a Brazilian hardwood and for those are familiar with Teak. This is going to weather kind of like teak will, it’ll turn grey over time.

It is super hard. It’s so hard. We have to use special tools to cut it. We have to drill it before we can fasten it, and it won’t even burn, it is so hard. So if you want a very low maintenance product but you don’t want the look of the composites and you want wood, this was, this is a great option, but it is on the more expensive side. So in the things that we’re gonna look at today, this is probably one of the more expensive options for your deck. Now before we get into composite, I want to show you a couple of things because most people that I have talked to have either seen a composite deck that looks terrible or they have been online and they have seen negative reviews about different companies and their composite product. The reason is that when composite first came out, it is a mixture of plastic and wood fibers and you can actually see the wood fibers and the board here.

This is the old style original composite. What we found over time is that this was kind of a problem. it stained, it’s scratched easy, it mildewed. And so while you didn’t have to stain and paint it, if you drop a greasy hamburger on it, for example, it would leave a spot. So over time it just did not hold up well. A lot of people have a bad taste in their mouth because of these all composites. And because of that, here at Bear Creek, we only install this if it is designed to match into something the customer already has. We don’t recommend this at all, but this is the first generation composite, a number of years ago, all the manufacturers started coming out with what they call capped composite. And that’s what all these products are. These are all the trecks. There are other manufacturers have used like timber tech.

But what they did is they took the composite board, which you can see right here. And they covered it with a cap, a cap material that makes it almost indestructible and that cap and keeps it from scratching, staining, all those kinds of things. And so in terms of price, you kind of go from pressure treated. When you jumped up to composite, you’re going up 30 to 40 percent depending on how much decking is involved in your project. And you know, you end up with a product kind of like this. Now the step one in the composites are colors that are solid.

This is where you have to kind of decide what your priorities are. These materials look like they’re painted, so they are solid uniform colors and which that’s what some people want, but some people want the low maintenance of composite, but they want something that looks more natural is we’re going to talk about that in just a minute, but these cap composites last a long time, you’ve got great warranties, usually 25 to 30 years depending on the manufacturer and we install them. As you can see this board has a groove. And so what we do is we have a special gun that shoots a clip like this right into the side of the board. So the board is actually fast and with these clips and therefore you don’t have screws in the surface. It makes it a very nice, clean look. And as you can see there are, there are lots of color options here.

There are reds, there are dark browns and grays, light browns, you can, you can get a lot of different colors, but these are all solid. And so that’s kind of step one in your composite. Then step two, where you price steps up a little bit is, colors that have natural graining in them and variation. And so these, these are going to be about 10 percent more than your first tier of composite, but when they go down they look like natural hardwood and they look really good. And so some people really want this look, if you’re going to be in your place for a long time, you really prefer that look, but you don’t want the maintenance. This is a great product. Once again, you have lots of color options. There’s more than what I’m showing you and there are more manufacturers.

And then the final thing is a solid product and this is kind of like your old porch for that. A lot of the traditional houses around here, I live on the tree streets. Our House, I’m sure at one point in time had had this floor on it, but this tongue and groove when he goes in as a solid smooth floor, but it is a PVC type composite. Therefore, it does not expand and contract, it can go in tight and it never has to be painted, it’ll never rot. these are great products, but they are really the premium when you get up into the PVC products, the most expensive things you can put on your deck. so depending on the look you want, this is a traditional deck board. So when they go together, you’ve got a gap like that between the boards on a product like this goes down, you get a solid looking floor. So those are, those are some of the different options.

On composite and a lot of times, I get a lot of questions about this. I’d be glad to talk with anyone that’s got a question, put a question in the comments. I’ll try to answer them as much as I can, but just hoping that you have an amazing time with your family this weekend because it’s cold. So nobody’s going to be on your deck right now this weekend it’s super cold here in Virginia. But spring is on the way. It’s going to be 60 degrees next week and maybe you’ll get outside and take a look around at your place and see what it looks like from the wintertime, look at the deck, see what kind of condition it’s in , and if you need any help trying to figure out what you should do or what would be the right thing for you and your project. I’m more than happy to help. Just send me a message on facebook or you can go to bear creek.co and schedule a consultation there. So anyway, have a great weekend everyone. We’ll talk to you later. See Ya.