Decking Buying Guide
Repair or Replace: Is It Time for a New Deck?
If your decking has cracks, looks dirty, or suffers from mildew, it’s time to decide whether to refinish it or replace it entirely.
Signs of an unsafe deck may not be immediately apparent, so safety checks are crucial when deciding whether to repair or replace it. Also, if your deck was built before 2004, there’s a good chance it’s made of lumber treated with chromated copper arsenate. Regular refinishing helps to seal in the toxic arsenic that CCA decking contains. However, if the finish is flaking or worn off in spots, we recommend hiring a professional who’s equipped to safely remove the old finish, dust, and debris, then refinish it. Here are some other considerations to keep in mind.
Weigh Costs
When pricing materials for a new or rebuilt deck, be sure to factor in the costs of railings, stairs, and the supporting structure, as well as the planks underfoot. If you’re hiring a pro, be aware that the cost of labor—either to build a new deck or to replace worn planking on an existing structure—can easily exceed the cost of the materials.
Complement Your Home’s Design
The width of the decking, its color and finish, and the shape of the railing are important design elements. A ranch, raised ranch, or contemporary house style can work well with many deck designs. It’s more challenging to make a deck work with an older home style, such as Tudor, colonial, or 1920s bungalow. Many manufacturers of synthetic decking offer a variety of railings, such as provincial- or Mission-style, that can help the deck fit with the rest of the house.
Sidestep Missteps
Deck screws tend to remain in place longer than nails. Ceramic-coated screws come in several colors, which helps them blend in.
To avoid splitting wood planks, drill pilot holes if you’re using nails and countersink screws. If you’re using composite materials, predrill screw holes. Choose zinc-coated or other corrosion-resistant fasteners, and use the right fasteners for composites. Also consider hidden fasteners or systems that hide the attachments. Most composite decking manufacturers also sell plastic plugs—designed to conceal holes from fasteners—that are color-matched to different decking lines.
Before staining, pressure-wash the old surface or brush it with a cleaning solution. If any mold or mildew remains, remove it using a solution of 1 part bleach and 3 parts water. When staining, use as many coats as the manufacturer recommends, and ensure the temperature outside is at least 50° F from the time the stain is applied until it dries completely.
Decking Types
Although wood is the most popular type of decking, other materials are gaining popularity among homeowners. Here are four types of decking material to consider.
Wood Decking
Pros: Authenticity. Most is pressure-treated pine, but more expensive options include cedar, redwood, and tropical hardwoods.
Cons: Wood tends to change color, crack, and stain if it isn’t refinished, and boards may need to be replaced more frequently. Hardwoods and exotic choices can be expensive.
Price: About $200 to $1,100 or more per 100 square feet.
Composite Decking
Pros: It has the appearance of wood without the need for staining. It’s made of plastic and wood fiber, and sometimes can be stained to change its color. Most of these materials now come with some or all sides encased in plastic to prevent mildew growth.
Cons: Some materials offer far less resistance to slips, stains, and mildew than others. Most choices are heavier and more expensive than pressure-treated pine.
Price: About $300 to $700 per 100 square feet.
Plastic Decking
Pros: Best for resisting the elements without staining. Choices include PVC and polyethylene. It’s also lightweight.
Cons: Some products can look inexpensive, some are slippery, and all sagged more than wood in CR’s testing.
Price: About $525 to $1,200 per 100 square feet.
Aluminum Decking
Pros: Toughness, rigidity, and slip resistance. Aluminum decking’s baked-on or anodized finish is expected to last a long time, and CR’s testing confirms that its textured surface provides added traction. Sections sometimes interlock so that rain won’t drip through.
Cons: It’s expensive, and no one would mistake it for wood.
Price: More than $500 per 100 square feet.
Deck-Wise Features
We expose the boards we test to harsh weather for three years at test sites in hot and humid Florida and in hot and dry Arizona. Each year, we have the boards sent back to our labs in Yonkers, N.Y., to test them for a variety of attributes, including resistance to flexing, slipping, spills, and surface damage from dents and wear. Our exposure scores reflect how each model compares with the others in our tests.
CR members with digital access can see our decking ratings. Our tests have found that some composite decking products don’t make the grade for rigidity, and some tonier wood products outperform most composites.
Here are some more decking tips.
Wood Alternatives Are Generally Better at Resisting Sun and Spills
Most of the composite, plastic, and aluminum decking we test keeps its original color better than unfinished wood. Many also fend off mustard, wine, and other stains.
Wood Is Stiffer and Surer
Wood resists slips best in our friction tests. It also resists bending and sagging. A few plastics and composites come close in those tests, but several of them flex or sag noticeably.
Wood Alternatives Offer a Range of Design Options
Synthetic products are available in multiple colors, including white, gray, and various shades of brown. Surface textures include smooth (like plastic lawn furniture, in some cases), subtle wood grain, ridges, and some distinctively non-woodlike patterns. Some composite planks are flexible enough to be curved into patterns or shapes that would be expensive to duplicate in solid wood.
New Fasteners Improve Looks and Ease Installation
TrapEase is one brand that offers special-purpose screws intended for use with plastic and composite decking. They have coarse threads at the tip to bite into the deck’s supporting joist and finer threads toward the head to stop the decking material from bulging out.
Invisible fasteners suitable for wood or plastics come in three types: metal clips with sharp prongs that dig into the deck planks and the joist, elliptical wafers that fit into a slot cut into the sides of the planks and are held with a screw driven into the joist, and strips that fasten to the joist and underside of the plank. When all the planks are in place, the fasteners are not visible.
Snap-in-place fasteners are easy to install but unique to specific brands. One brand of aluminum decking we tested snaps together, much like tongue-and-groove flooring does. A vinyl decking product we reviewed snaps in place over metal clips screwed onto the joists.
Decking Brands and Materials
We test manufactured decking made by specific brands, as well as types of wood that are generally unbranded but reflect the materials you’ll find at home centers and building material suppliers.
