Sunday, February 21, 2010

Covering for unsightly wooden deck in front of beach house?

My deck is structurally sound but is unsightly due to surface cracks in the wood. It is constructed of pressure treated 2 x 6 lumber. I would like to cover it with something - indoor/outdoor carpet, Trex, etc. It gets a lot of sun. Any recommendations?Covering for unsightly wooden deck in front of beach house?
if you cover it with a carpet and it gets wet it will increase the rot factor , most people sand it and apply stainCovering for unsightly wooden deck in front of beach house?
Pressure wash it - then let it dry and good color will return then you can use a Clear or stained MinWax to beautify it. Covering it will allow moisture and mold to build up - not a good idea. goto minwax.com for ideas and colorchart.
should have used redwood in the begining. Pressure treated wood is only treated to a specified depth of the lumber, now that it is cracked the interior of the wood is now exposed and untreated.
Since this is a beach house I would carpet to be a quick fix.


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The wood will require sanding and treating on an annual basis.


Get a floor sander and stain and seal plan on replacing surface


TREX surface in sun gets very hot and can burn the feet. not a good choice. un less you wish to re surface and than recover with carpet runners
If the wood is cracked really badly then it might be best to simply replace it. Anything that you put over your wood is going to cause it to retain moisture. Wooden decking is meant to be exposed to air so that it can dry readily after getting wet, so I don't know that putting Trex over the existing decking would be a good idea. If you do use Trex or any other composite or plastic decking, then go with the lightest color you can get, the biggest problem with the composites is that it gets very hot in the sun. Also, if your joists are on 24'; centers rather than 16';, then I wouldn't suggest anything other than treated 2';X4'; or 2';X6'; as decking since you can get sagging between the joists.

1 comment:

  1. Here is an blog post that talks about making an old deck look new again by resurfacing!http://bit.ly/c4XuWR

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