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Kevin, We’ve built one deck with Choicedeck and two with Trex. The two trex being the latest. Choicedeck was the first and was about 1100 square feet. Choice deck was easy to work with, however, the were great variations in the uniformity of widths varying as much as a eighth of an inch. Choice deck also had variations in the texture of different pieces. It’s been awhile but I think we used around 140-16′ pieces on the choicedeck. Over 8 months choicedeck has weatherd to a dull gray from the brown it started out at. Keep in mind that all of the synthetic decks will fade. Because of the varying characteristics of the choicedeck, we have chosen to push the Trex. The last two decks we did were extremely nice and the customers were very pleased. We use pressure treated syp for framing and railing structure and use Trex for the decking, top of handrail, and skirting that goes around the sides to cover and ground to deck gaps. Trex is much more consistent dimentionally and gives a much cleaner finished product. We screw it with 3″ ceramic coated screws from a self-feed screwgun and put about an 1/8″ gap between boards. You do have to gap the boards end to end if you are installing in cold weather and how much is determined by the installing temp and the maximum summer temp. We miter all joints tightly in the summer and leave a slight gap in the winter. To finish off the screws which have been slightly countersunk, we use a flat faced hammer and pound the trex brought up by the screw down over the head. once the deck has faded some, you can hardly see the screws. Hope this helps some, you can check out trex at http://www.trex.com I think.
A. Johnson
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Kevin, We've built one deck with Choicedeck and two with Trex. The two trex being the latest. Choicedeck was the first and was about 1100 square feet. Choice deck was easy to work with, however, the were great variations in the uniformity of widths varying as much as a eighth of an inch. Choice deck also had variations in the texture of different pieces. It's been awhile but I think we used around 140-16' pieces on the choicedeck. Over 8 months choicedeck has weatherd to a dull gray from the brown it started out at. Keep in mind that all of the synthetic decks will fade. Because of the varying characteristics of the choicedeck, we have chosen to push the Trex. The last two decks we did were extremely nice and the customers were very pleased. We use pressure treated syp for framing and railing structure and use Trex for the decking, top of handrail, and skirting that goes around the sides to cover and ground to deck gaps. Trex is much more consistent dimentionally and gives a much cleaner finished product. We screw it with 3" ceramic coated screws from a self-feed screwgun and put about an 1/8" gap between boards. You do have to gap the boards end to end if you are installing in cold weather and how much is determined by the installing temp and the maximum summer temp. We miter all joints tightly in the summer and leave a slight gap in the winter. To finish off the screws which have been slightly countersunk, we use a flat faced hammer and pound the trex brought up by the screw down over the head. once the deck has faded some, you can hardly see the screws. Hope this helps some, you can check out trex at http://www.trex.com I think.
A. Johnson
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Has anyone used choice deck it is supposed to be like trex only "better". That is lighter stiffer etc...My salesman says it beats sliced bread but then he says that about a lot of his products.
*I'd say your salesman has a vested interest in selling you the composites. I have always felt anything new will be received with resistance, and time is the true test.My point is, in my opinion,the jury is still out on the longevity of the current products on the market.(for residential usage)Until the technologies are perfected, I'll keep my money in the tried and true.My favorite natural decking is knotty cypress.