Deck Rebuild Opinions

Planning to replace all the deck boards and railings on my deck. It’s currently all red cedar and was thinking of just going with cedar again. I used Menards project builder to quote everything out and am somewhat please with the quoted price. It comes to around $3500 for everything but I wanted some opinions on whether or not I should go with cedar or upgrade to composite.

If I were to consider composite, exactly which product should I consider? They have about 6 choices of varying cost.

I also have a screened in gazebo attached to the deck that was recently sealed with a cedar tone. Would this look odd connected to a composite deck?

I personally hate sealing the deck so it’s either something I would pay someone to do or I would just go composite and not have to worry about it. Seems like some of the mid level composite would come out to the same cost of cedar plus paying someone to seal it.

Thoughts? I’d like to choose a good product so I can compare the price.

Trex.

Get the grooved stuff so you can hide the fasteners. Be sure whatever you’re putting the new decking on is spanned correctly for the composite and is not decaying in any way.

I redid mine a few years ago from cedar to composite. Price was out of this world but worth every penny to me. Easy to clean and no more staining every few years. I kept all the cedar and made all kinds of stuff. Replaced my old cedar dock sections with my old deck boards. So those should be good for another 10 years. My deck wraps around my house 14×20 think 3 years ago it was 20K.

I’ve got nothing bad to say about any of the major brands (Trex, Azek, Timbertech). Haven’t had a chance to install Deckorators simply because none of my customers have asked for it, but would like to try it out. They all have a good quality product, each just has their place with the look, feel, and price you are looking for.

For hardware, go with the Camo Edge Clips. They are by far superior to any other system I have used. Faster and stronger, the plastic clips made by other manufacturers feel weak in comparison.

For railing, my preference is Westbury Aluminum. Just an all around better look and feel over other brands I have seen. And I try to stay away from plastic rails, I never have good experiences installing them, they typically have steel inserts that eventually rust, and I just don’t trust the plastic brackets to hold up over the years.

Composit.

1 Timbertech
2 trex

I’m getting the sense that none of Menards options are worthwhile?

I remember 5+ years ago it was difficult to find a good review on their brands. Must still be the case.

biggill wrote:

I’m getting the sense that none of Menards options are worthwhile?

I’ve made a lot of money over the years ripping their crap out and replacing it

lotta good info reported here so far

I’ll add – use flashing tape on your joist and rims

I have trex and I really like it. Easy to clean looks really nice and oh yeah, no staining or stripping. Just a wash once or twice a year

I appreciate the input. I’ll likely be going composite, probably trex. Looks like cost is still similar to cedar + paying someone to seal it. The only thing that sucks is that I really like the look of cedar rails with black aluminum spindles.

I used the Menards Ultradeck – Rustic. Put it on 5 years ago on a new deck and haven’t had any issues with the decking. I started using the hidden fastener system and it was a pain, so I just surface screwed it all and I don’t notice the screws. I just power wash the deck once or twice a year. It has faded a little due to being on the south side of the house but it has faded evenly

I would run Composite, Yup more money but is it really? Think about up keep and rotten all the other BS crap.

Opinions here prompted me to go with Trex. It was delivered about a week ago and the demo has begun.

Ended up buying from Lowes after stopping and and speaking to the pro desk. The guy I talked to was able to practically build a bom in his head by the dimensions I gave him. Also, signing up with a pro account saved me almost 20% on the materials.

Now the fun begins. Fishing will be taking a back seat this spring unfortunately.

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My local yard special orders Trex but they also sell Fiberon brand and that is what they keep in stock. Anyone ever heard or used Fiberon? It comes with a 30 year fade, crack, split warranty.

Matt – if you’re installing the decking at a 45 degree angle like the current decking is, make sure your joists are 12″ o.c. or less.

MX1825 – nothing wrong with Fiberon Decking, much more popular on the east coast than here. Easier around here to sell Trex, TimberTech, Azek (TimberTech) because of name brand recognition in this market.

I’m not doing the 45 and if I recall correctly, they are spaced at 12”, maybe 16”.

However, the stair stringers are at 16” so I’ll have to add another stringer to each staircase. Problem is that they’re pretty beat up and soft so I’m thinking I’ll replace them all. Is it worth buying precut stair stringers?

Matt – the majority of all reskins that I supply end up replacing all of the stair stringers. I’m not sure whether it is worth it buy pre-cut, that would likely be determined by what you need for your rise/run. I think most pre-cut stair stringers are for 7″ rise, that may not be what you need.

I’m still loving my trex

Ryan Speers wrote:

Matt – if you’re installing the decking at a 45 degree angle like the current decking is, make sure your joists are 12″ o.c. or less.

MX1825 – nothing wrong with Fiberon Decking, much more popular on the east coast than here. Easier around here to sell Trex, TimberTech, Azek (TimberTech) because of name brand recognition in this market.

Thanks Ryan for the info. Much appreciated!

I bought a house 2 yrs ago. I has a 29×14 redwood deck. I was going to re-deck it with composite. The footings were bad, the posts were rotten. I ripped it all out. Poured footings with sono tubes and built a new deck. I’m using white aluminum rails. Just finished building the steps today. I gotta hand it to people that do labor for a living. I’m pretty darn tired after working on it. I have a ton of reclaimed 2×6 and 2×8 redwood to figure out what to do with.

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Here is one I did that I did early mid last year reused the existing structure. All I did was add blocking and backing to the joists

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And a couple of more pics.
This was Trex flooring with hidden fasteners and Westbury C10 railing.

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Very nice Denny. I was wondering, is it worth it to notch the facia to match the stair stringers? I guess one way or another you’ll see the ends of either the stair boards or the inside of the facia.

The only exposed edges that are exposed the way I do it is the 1st and 3rd pic I did.
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The cut edge is only visible at the bottom plumb cut skirt face and at the top (level cut) inch +/-. If that is where you are referring to knotch it around the top tread, ya maybe so as seen in the 3rd pic. Because it is completely guarded by the railing there is no abuse that could happen. I have also painted the plumb cut edge of the skirt board at the ground.

Was that what you were asking??

The vertical boards in the fascia directly under the railing posts are deck boards cutting out the underside groove. so the layover is a radius wrap.

Well done Denny!
Spendy deck right there, they don’t give that Westbury away.

I tell Clients that want a maintenance free deck with aluminum rails that they are very expensive. They say “I know” then I give them the proposal and they say “I didn’t know they were that expensive”

When redecking, I’d ask myself, ”will these posts and footings last 30 years?” It doesn’t make sense to put 30 yr material on old structure. That’s why I rebuilt everything.

bigfatcroixbaby wrote:

$3500? Must just be a 6×8, huh?

My quote for 8×12 deck, no railing, 1 step is $2150. That is just materials. It includes sonotubes, sakrete, green sub structure, composite decking, fascia, and all fasteners.

TH wrote:

When redecking, I’d ask myself, ”will these posts and footings last 30 years?” It doesn’t make sense to put 30 yr material on old structure. That’s why I rebuilt everything.

Agreed.

I’d look long and hard at any old structure before putting thousands (or 10s of thousands) of composite over it. There’s a bar on the Chetac chain in WI that redid a deck that’s probably ~1000 sq. feet and went with all trex on pre-existing treated structure. Last summer was the third season since it had been redone according to the waitress. It looked like a roller coaster.