My fancy new composite decking started warping after 2 months

Ngl I thought I was being smart spending $3,800 on that high-end composite stuff from a local yard in Portland. By week six I noticed three boards near the south corner buckling up like a speed bump. Turns out they didn't leave enough expansion gap on a 90 degree day. Had to pull up half the deck and reinstall with proper spacing. Anyone else run into this with composite or was mine just a bad batch?

2 comments

2 Comments

mila_jones391d ago

Honestly I spent more on spacers than I did on the deck boards, pretty pathetic.

nancy31d ago

Yup, that's a super common thing people dont get told when they buy composite. The installers at the big box stores never mention expansion gaps because they just want to move product. I had a buddy who laid his Trex down tight against the house and it pushed his whole rim joist out an inch by summer. You really gotta leave like a quarter inch gap at every end and double check the manufacturer specs cause some brands need even more than that. The heat expansion is no joke, especially on dark colored boards that soak up the sun.