How To Make Trex Decking Less Slippery

Choosing Deck Materials

Snowy and icy weather can make your deck into a slippery safety hazard. are slip and fall accidents, and as we brace ourselves for the winter, we . Rock salt and calcium chloride are safe to use on composite decks but.

Composite Decking Vs Wood

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Trex offers four tiers of decking products providing a comprehensive range of easy, low-maintenance options. All Trex decking is available with a grooved edge, hidden deck fastener option. When using grooved-edge boards, Trex’s hidden deck fastening system installs between the deck boards, fastening them to the joists with no visible deck screw heads on the walking surface. This precision also creates perfectly consistent spacing between the boards for a flawless look across the entire deck. Even though Trex Hideaway hidden deck fasteners are designed for use with Trex decking, they work with just about any decking with a groove. They even sell a bit for making the grooves yourself if your decking has a solid edge. The clips are super easy to use, extremely versatile and come with starter and edge clips for a super clean finish.

Is Trex Decking Slippery In Winter?

If you’ve recently installed some timber decking and made the discovery that it can be a very slippery decking area when wet, rest assured, you’re not alone. The good news is that there is now a professional and reliable solution to this problem – easily fitted AFTER your decking has been laid. Plastic or plastic composite lumber is a low-maintenance and higher-priced alternative to pressure-treated wood. This deck in Highlands, Washington, is built with composite planks and railings made from recycled plastic and oak sawdust.

• SlipDoctors’ Floor Grip is an effective roll-on anti-slip coating ideal for slippery composite decking surfaces.
• Most of them though perform better than conventional wood decking in terms of slip resistance.
• And there are things you can do to increase the surface traction.
• However, there’s still no 100% anti-slip composite decking.
• There are some composite decking products that are designed to reduce slipping.
• This clear, water-based urethane sealer was designed for creating an anti-slip coating on vinyl, vinyl composition tile , interior wood, cork, laminate, linoleum surfaces, and more.

Both Trex and Timbertech offer they’re own brand of hidden deck fastener. If you lie in a climate that sees a hot summer season most years, then you’ll want to select composite decking boards that have a lighter color to them. You can choose matte, smooth, or highly textured options while still working to avoid the heating issue with some of the choices that are on the market today. The cost of using composite decking for your home is 50% more than what you would pay for pressure-treated wood. It’s even more than redwood or cedar if you use a standard grade of lumber. Even though the added costs up front makes it more expensive to build a deck, you can usually offset the expense with the lower maintenance costs down the road. If you’re not in a position to manage the extra expense, then natural wood is going to be the better solution to consider.

Composite decking looks and behaves more like wood than all-plastic does because it contains about 50 percent wood dust in addition to plastic. Most boards have solid or tongue-and-groove profiles and are screwed down just like wood. While wood decking is nailed or screwed down and very simple to install, composite decking manufacturers have created special fasteners that “disappear,” creating an unfettered look. Hidden fastening systems often require no special tools and are easy to install, while color-matched screws can make the installation more like wood.

Promptly sweeping leaves from your deck – particularly after storms and rain – will prevent the buildup of moisture on the deck surface and the growth of mold, mildew, and algae. You can also clear debris from cracks and gaps between boards with a putty knife or similar flat edge to halt moisture and organism growth.

Most sagging is caused by improper spacing between the joists when it is installed. Composite decking is fade resistant, but it may fade over time in strong sunlight.

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Should Decking Be Ribbed Side Down?

To cut composite or plastic decking, manufacturers recommend using carbide-tipped saw blades with 18 to 24 teeth per inch, to reduce friction and prevent the blade from gumming up. They also recommend drilling pilot holes for the screws because some decking tends to "mushroom" as it's fastened through the face, leaving a little ring-shaped bump around each screw head. Another strategy is to hammer the bumps flat, or to simply use self-tapping deck screws that limit mushrooming and eliminate the need for pilot holes. But the fastest way to eliminate mushrooming may be to use a new screw made specifically for nonwood decking. The TrapEase screw by Master Fastener uses a built-in secondary thread system to pull excess material down as the screw burrows in.