TREX decking

[montanadave]

About four years ago I built a new front porch onto my home and decided to use TREX decking as it is a southern exposure and gets a lot of sun in the summer months. In addition, this is Montana so it is subjected to a wide range of temps (the occasional -30 to 100+).

Several (not all) of the deck boards have blistered and the surface layer is now peeling and flaking off. To make things worse, I used hidden deck fasteners to maintain a "clean" look and cutting out the defective boards is going to require using screws on some of the boards.

Anybody had a similar experience with this product? If so. what kind of luck did you have getting TREX to honor their 25 year warranty? Any ideas on how to repair or halt the damage short of replacing the boards?

[bkb0000]

trex is well aware of the problem, they were class-action sued for it in '04.

the few replacements ive done were at owner expense, either because trex wouldn't cover it (voided warranty bullsht) or the customer decided not to risk it again and went with a different product. i wouldnt install composition planks, though, so i can't tell you how many people have gotten free replacements- 'cause i wouldn't have been the guy to do it.

i'd start with the retailer you got it from- they probably already have a line with the company for this very problem. i wouldn't count on getting your money back- free planks is probably the best you can hope for. and you'll most likely be on your own for labor, unless this falls under court orders for the company to provide labor (i have no idea what was addressed or what the stipulations of the lawsuit were).

[SperlingPE]

All of the fiberglass/plastic/composite decking materials are subject to UV deterioration. Some are better than others.

[bkb0000]

http://www.trex.com/legal/notice_web.pdf

link to the settlement, for what it's worth to you.

[EzGoingKev]

After having the wood decks rot out constantly the condo owners association had them replaced with Trex about 5 years ago and ours have been great.

[montanadave]

Thanks for the feedback and the information, fellas. Like I said, 90% of the decking looks fine--it's the 10% that failed which pisses me off (and the fact that it's going to be a PITA to replace). I got a response from TREX so I'll pursue that but there's zero chance I saved the lumber yard receipt for the decking from 4 years ago so I'm guessing that's a dead end. Guess I'll chock this up as one of those "if it sounds to good to be true (e.g. "no maintenance" decking), it probably isn't."

Just to put it in perspective, I spent part of yesterday morning looking at the porch and getting myself good and pissed off about it. Last evening my neighbor came over to tell my wife and I that she and her husband's 19-year-old daughter was killed in a car accident Sunday morning. I've known the young lady since before she started grade school, had her and her brother and sister "trick or treat" on Halloween for years, she watched our cats when we were out of town, and just started college last fall. I just spoke with her last week about the classes she was planning to take when school started up again in a month or so. And now she's gone.

Suddenly a couple of ****ed-up deck boards don't seem like such a big deal.

[FromMyColdDeadHand]

If God had wanted plastic decking, he would have made trees out of polyethylene. :D

It seems that the plastic decking is getting better, and some of it looks absolutely beautiful with the graining imprinted. Wood degrades too lets remember, it just seems to me that when plastic decking fails, it just looks worse. From what I understand, the manufacturers have learned a lot about the process and the products over the past few years, and why they had some of the failures.

[KellyTTE]

I deal with decks all the time as a part of my job. One thing that people don't get is that I tell them that a good UV/water proof coating goes a long way to maintaining the material. There seems to be a theory that Trex (or whatever) = no work at all and its just not true.

But the short answer is yes, they all do it over time, they're better about it than they used to be, but you still need to protect the material from UV exposure.

http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/article/0,,219491-3,00.html

[FromMyColdDeadHand]

In most of that plastic lumber, there is a lot of wood flour. I'd be more excited by plastic fencing than decking. If I were to be excited about faux lumber.

[EzGoingKev]

Like I previously posted, the condo owner's association did all the decks with it and that is the only thing they ever did right. Right now they are replacing some other stuff that keeps rotting out with it as they had such good results with it.

Ours is the gray stuff and I see they produce other finishes including wood grains.

What type of finish is on the ones that you guys are seeing issues with?

[montanadave]

What type of finish is on the ones that you guys are seeing issues with?

The material on my deck which has de-laminated (for lack of a better word) was the TREX Accent in grey purchased in the fall of 2005. Accent is the one which has a faux wood grain on one side and is plain on the other. I spoke with the lumber yard where I purchased the material and the manager acknowledged that TREX had quality issues with several production runs during that period and did have a claims process in place to resolve problems related to faulty product. He also stated his lumber yard was no longer stocking TREX composites and had switched to another brand.

TREX e-mailed me the claims packet forms but without the sales receipt I think I'm SOL. Another lumber yard in town has the TREX Accent in stock so I guess I'll just shell out the dough to replace the boards which have failed and hope the rest of them don't follow suit. If I see additional boards blistering in another year or so I guess I'll just shit can all of it and replace the entire deck.