This week’s deck du jour was a 500 sq ft deck over wavy concrete with Geodeck T & G. The day before we started laying the flooring down we went on a callback to a deck built in March where the T & G had buckled (also built over a slab) and it set the red flags flying. Has anyone here used this product to offer up any tricks? The decking looked like spaghetti with all kinds of waves and whoops to work with. Fortunately it was a typical hot Georgia day yesterday and we managed to get it all down using a coil nailer with 2 1/2″ ss nails and adhesive and a lot of wrestling.
I downloaded the installation guide from their website and took it in for the boss. His boss, a sadly inept goof had left us with instructions to staple the stuff down through the bottom lip of the groove… I know, I know… We worked it according to the instructions from the manufacturer leaving gaps next to the brick, between the boards themselves, and ran a saw down the parting board to gap the material at the joint itself. All in all, it went in relatively well but I’m just not impressed with this product. Neither the boss nor myself really want to install this stuff anymore if it’s so finicky to work with but we haven’t convinced the sales staff to even read the specs on it yet so we’ll likely have more in the future.
My question is are there any other T & G decking products which don’t have the problems Geodeck seems to have and which don’t have as wide a range of variables to hassle with? I’m trying to put together an informative proposal for the office to consider site conditions when choosing the style of decking best suited for specific circumstances. Maybe I’m just fighting ‘city hall’ with all this but it rankles me to have to use the wrong materials in the wrong circumstance. I’d love to chain the salesman to the materials trailer for the day his choice is being cussed and installed so he could see what is really going on before he cashes his commission check…
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I think Geodeck is the most overpriced garbage you could possibly want to put on a deck.
How's that?
I've had all the problems you've described with the decking. And yet, I think the decking is WONDERFUL compared to the railing kits. I've never worked so hard, spent so much coin on materials, and been so disappointed with the finished product.
I never sell another one. I'm pushing the Weatherbest decking these days.
And here I thought the bad part was over just getting the deck down. We're putting up a privacy fence and a pergola on this deck, all with the rail materials you seem so fond of. Guess I'll have more ammo to argue against its use by Tuesday... Thanks for the comments diesel.
How'd the railings go?
We finished up yesterday. The rail was ok but it gives absolutely no structural integrity to anything it's mounted to. We built a pergola and had to rail between posts on one side while one end got a privacy fence which extended onto the lower deck for 30'. It was a toss up on this job as to whether the Geodeck sucked worse than the design or vice versa.
I'm still shaking my head at what the boss's boss came up with for the fence design. We ripped the web from the undersides of a top and bottom rail to allow a slot in which to insert regular flooring. When we had to lattice the top, I had to cut 4 cuts for each mounting bracket to allow the flooring below and the lattice track above to reach all the way to the posts. We were basically using horseshoes to mount the system along the fence run. What little structural integrity the material had before was non existent after cutting the rails like that. We had to run chunks of pickets to the ground to keep the stupid thing from sagging.
The boss's boss showed up after I had just finished putting one section together and asked how it was going. WRONG time. wrong question. I was spitting nails by then with how I thought it was working out. So I told him the design was sh!t and the Geodeck the wrong choice of materials for this application. He then proceeded to lay off the design to his boss who incidentally is nothing more than a franchise owner with absolutely no construction experience and couldn't have designed the mess in his worst nightmare. I flat out told him his salesmen have no business designing decks if they don't have a clue how they go together or what the critical elements are to making a deck structurally sound. I guess I won't be getting that lead man position for another crew after all....ha ha. That's just fine by me cause I hate working for people I can't respect and he's currently at the top of that list.
Anyway, sorry to vent but I'm in full agreement with you about the worthless nature of the product. To exacerbate the problem with bad design is a waste of resources and homeowners' money.