Does anyone have any experiences with Geodeck? My condo association is pushing for all the decks to be replaced using this material (I would prefer western red cedar) and I have seen recalls of the Geodeck product? What have other people experienced as far as customer satisfaction, ease of installation, longevity and overall value? Thanks.
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I used it on one job and now avoid it like the plague. It's overpriced and there are just too many accessory items that need to be purchased in order for the deck to look presentable.
One that comes to mind is the 'end caps' that have to be installed on all exposed edges. Geodeck is a hollow product, so you can look right down inside the length of the deck board on any exposed cuts. Their solution is their endcaps which need to be glued and pinned to the end of all cuts. Or you can use a border piece I guess, but that still doesn't help you on your stair treads. The end caps aren't cheap either.
The railing system is also a PIA to work with. The "cuffs" or "collars" for the railings are bulky and weird looking but must be used. When I had to cut them at an angle for the stair railings I spent about 2 hours trying to make up a jig of some sort to cut them on my SCMS with some semblance of safety. I gave up and made a "pucker cut" with my hands about 1" away from the spinning blade.
The railings are also mortised to receive their big clunky balusters so it can be very tricky to cut them and have equal spacing. A lot of care must be given to the placement of your deck posts. No big deal, but it can literally dictate the size of the deck you are going to build if you don't want to end up with an unsightly (and possibly code violating) space on one end of your railing.
IIRC the railings also only came in two lengths which can also inhibit your design unless you want to spend a good deal more money than is necessary.
All in all, the pieces are too expensive and the installation of the whole package is just too labor instensive to justify the finished product. Don't get me wrong, it was a pretty nice looking deck when we were done with it, but I think equal or better results can be obtained with a product like Weatherbest.
Here's the Geodeck I did two years ago. All the white trim boards are Koma brand PVC.
Edited 3/12/2006 8:42 pm ET by dieselpig
What? I scare you off? ;)