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Since Trex is not supposed to ever warp is it still necessary to have two screws at every joist. Joist spacing will be 16″ centers. Also has anybody had experience with the Trex colors dark grey or dark brown as far as to what shade and how fast their colors fade over time.
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Tom, Having done a bunch of TREX decks, you're right, it doesn't warp, but double screwing insures the whiole face of the deck remains flat. Are you trying for a blind look with no facing screws? If so, then two ways to go about getting that look - blind screw with a product like Deckmaster, or, a phenominon we noticed is if you drive the screw down about 1/4" below the surface it forms a little "Puff" of trex arount the hole. Tapping this puff back in produces a "dissappearing" effect.
Another idea would be to counterdrill and plug with gray TREX using PVC cement. (An interesting look.)
I've never had any experience with the dark brown TREX, but was assured by TREX the color would remain the same. Just don't be confused by regular TREX, which starts life as particleboard brown and then fades to approx Cabot's Driftwood gray in about 4 - 6 weeks. Have fun.
*Thanks for the input Tedfrd. I was interested in the appearance and your little "trick" looks good. Having just ripped apart the rotted deck that this will replace I was also concerned about the fact that many of the deck screws I tried to remove were rusted and broke off. Any screw that was below the surface collected more water and deteriorated much faster so your method will also help with that issue I would guess. I'm also using a better screw this time (I hope!) called Fastap. Any real world input on the color issue would still be appreciated. For the amount of money I'll be spending on the stuff I don't care for any surprises.
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On the nailing issue: you won't get much warping, but you will get a slappy/rattily sound if one side isn't firmly held down. BTW, you can get flexing and slight bows as the heat causes TREX to expand longitudinally.
paper or plastic?
Adam S
*The color fades to a bland color, and 'cause there's no grain it looks kinda like cement. OK if the tradeoff for not rotting is worth it too you (it was for me). You can stain it quite easily but, I've heard, risk losing traction when it's wet. Perhaps if you stained with something that did NOT increase water repellancy.For the snapping screws ... do you know what kind were used? I used deckmaster (a pain, expensive, but nice-looking --- and it also happens to protect the screws from rusting), and where I couldn't I plugged with the PVC cement trick. Use very fine dust from the belt sander. Plugging very obviously reduced the amount of water that could collect in the hole -- you can see the water soaking through the trex around the hole after a rain, very little when plugged. The plug all but disappears as it fades. I also put a glob of construction adhesive under each board to firm it up and exclude water. Consider running decking diagonally, it looks better and further stiffens the deck surface.
*What is the span rating on trex ? Would running diagonal cause you to have to close up the joist spaceing ?
*Go to the Trex site -- http://www.trex.com -- for info on this.I used 2x6's and 2x4's at about 34° on 16" centers. More than solid, esp. with glue.Soecifically, go to this page for spans.
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I probably should have mentioned we always ysed either galvanized or stainless 2-1/2" Scorpion square drive screws in our applications. We had no problems with rusting either way. Used a Quick Drive / Bostich Auto feed with good results too.
Never had good luck with air nails.
Andy, as far as staining goes, had several different go rounds with stains with no increased slippage - even had a customer who wanted the TREX deck stained to the Cabots Driftwood gray (the color the stuff fades to) ((I know, a preposition is something not to end a sentance with)). Takes all kinds, right?
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Let them preps dangle, I don't care. Half the grammar "rules" of English were cooked up a century ago to give grammarians something to do. As some wag said, "Bad grammar is something up with which i will not put."
Good news on the stain. It was the Trex distributor that cautioned me on that. I tried various stains on scraps and they took to it fine.
Uh ... why stain a soon-to-be-gray product gray? Never mind.
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my deck was installed with the eb-ty deck fastening system and have nothing but compliments. My builder has gotten a lot of referals from me and others who have used them.
*How does the cost of Trex compare to the cost of vinyl decking system? Just had a customer asking this question. I've never used either one, only treated lumber decks. Do you still use conventional treated lumber framing for Trex?Verl Kauffman
*Verl, TREX is about as non structural as you can get, so framing has to be Pressure Treated or the like.
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Since Trex is not supposed to ever warp is it still necessary to have two screws at every joist. Joist spacing will be 16" centers. Also has anybody had experience with the Trex colors dark grey or dark brown as far as to what shade and how fast their colors fade over time.