New decking products part 3

Hello ... We are a reviewing some of the new decking product for the upcoming 2011 season. Only a few more weeks until spring is here in Michigan, and the Metro detroit area deck and patio building season will start up for another year. Hopefully old man winter will agree on there being only a couple more weeks.

Deckorators one of our favorite companies has introduced a real neat "Duo" baluster connector. Here it is pictured with their aluminum kit rail. The picture shows the "Duo" connectors only on the top rail, but they can be used on the top and bottom rails.

They can also be used with any type of railing,wood or synthetic. They have a arched version that is used with the Classic and Colonial balusters, pictured on the left:

There is also a square version that is used with the Estate balusters. See on the right:

We use Deckorators metal balusters on almost all of the decks we build so we are really excited about the

"Duo" baluster connectors.

Trex has introduced two new colors to their cap-layer composite decking line Transcends. The two new colors mimic the look of a tropical hardwood which has been the hot thing in decking for last few years. The new colors are Lava Rock and Spiced Rum. I cannot get any pictures from their site so here a link to their site - Trex Transcends Colors

Both Deckorators and Trex have came out with their own low voltage light lines. Which is another hot thing right now in outdoor living / deck construction.

Deckorators Lighting

Trex Lighting

We are deck & patio builders in Metro Detroit and throughout Southeastern Michigan.  Next week we will take a look a Azek products 

Thanks for reading !

Getting ready for spring... New deck products for 2011

We just got back from a Timber Tech deck clinic at a local lumberyard - Dillman & Upton they are going to stock only Timber Tech for their synthetic decking this year.

You could feel a little excitement in the presentation of their new products and product line. One of Timber Tech's product designers did the presentation and he did a great job. Even one of the owners was there to answer questions
Big thanks to Dillman and Upton for the clinic

I have to give all the credit to Timber Tech for their product development and their broad product line, they have just about everything imaginable in synthetic decking, and it is A+ top quality.

Just for a little back ground from what I know of Timber Tech. They are owned by Crane plastics who is one largest and oldest vinyl/plastics company that makes vinyl products for windows and siding and much more.

Timber Tech is the second largest and second oldest synthetic decking manufactures in the world, which makes for a very secure company, in a very volatile market, synthetic companies come and go every year it seems.

Timber Tech has a new cap layer composite line out called Evolutions. The line is a revamp of their Earthwood product line that was very popular a few years ago. They have kept the same or similar look/colors of the Earthwood line except the Evolution has the Cap layer protection over the old composite core. This is a major evolution of the Earthwood line, giving the composite a much more durable cover or cap layer.

I am a big believer in the Cap layer composite product. We have used Correct Deck CX for quite a few years and have not had any call backs ! GAF has since bought Correct Deck out and In my opinion ruined the company by changing the name, and not progressing with Correct Deck and going backwards by developing a first generation composite.

We have always liked Timber Tech because of their original more dense composite product. They again have always been the most innovative in the synthetic decking business. After the original Twin Finish and Floorizon lines, They came out with the XLM PVC line which is still a really great product, and could still be considered the best deck boards on the market.  They also have the very best kit railing on the market,  Radiance rail, and now they have the Evolutions line.

In the last two years both Trex and Fiberon have introduced cap lay composites into the synthetic decking market. One thing I want to say here and it is just my opinion. There are four big players in the synthetic decking market, Trex, Timber Tech, Azek, and Fiberon.

Any other synthetic decking product manufactures I would becareful with, because of the volatility of the small companies which seem to fold just as quickly as they start. The problem is you the home owner could be stuck with no warranty and a suspect product with no recourse.  Where the big four have gotten over the hump and established themselves as fixtures in the synthetic decking business

Back to the topic

Timber Tech Evolutions 

Has three colors all which have dark colored streaking, which is trying to mimic the look of South American hardwood decking and flooring,  such as Ipe, Tigerwood, Teak, or Mahogany  

Pacific Teak

 Pacific Walnut

Pacific Rosewood

The cap layer composite technology might be they best synthetic decking product.

It differently has some pluses over PVC

1) Less shrinking & expansion

2) Stronger than PVC

3) Better at UV protection

4) Green friendly using recycled raw materials in its formula instead of PVC which uses all virgin materials

 

Timber Tech waited to introduce Evolutions until they had completely tested their cap layer product and had a full line of matching trim boards. Lets hope that is the same for the other newer cap layer products especially in the testing. 

Evolutions looks to be the best of the bunch !

Next we will look at the rest of the new Timber Tech products for 2011

Thanks for reading

New products for the 2010 deck and patio season

We are looking forward to spring and getting out and building some new decks, porches and patios. I personally love designing and building outdoor living areas.

This year there has not been allot of changes in Composite/PVC products on the decking market. Trex and Fiberon have come out with both of their cap layer composite deck boards, Trex Transcends and Fiberon Horizons We wrote about the Trex Transcend product earlier this year and we are going to monitor the new Trex line and see how it preforms. The Fiberon Horizon composite cap layer product is interesting. The Horizon Tropics line came out at the end of last year. We did get a chance to build two decks from the Horizon line and I was really impressed. Here is a link to their site.

http://www.fiberondecking.com/

FIBERON HORIZON TROPICS

Fiberon Horizons Rosewood deck we built last year

The center of the triple border is Correct Deck CX pebble color. The rest of the decking is the Fiberon Horizons Rosewood. You can see the dramatic dark streaking in the red colored Rosewood board which mimics the look of a natural Brazilian hardwood. The Horizon Tropics line has two different colors Rosewood and Ipe and there is actually seven different colors used to make up the colors in the Rosewood and Ipe deck boards

The Fiberon Horizon Line has a twenty year fade and stain warranty which guarantees against any fading or staining. This was the first warranty of this kind for a composite decking product.

Here is a link to a composite/pvc comparison chart put out by Fiberon

http://www.fiberondecking.com/products/compareHorizon

In the link you can see the core of the Horizon deck board is first generation composite and the outer cap layer is what they call "PermaTech" which is the cap layer. Another good point about the Horizon line; is the deck board is two sided, so the "PermaTech cap layer is on both side so it is reversible which is completely unique in that no other manufacture that I am aware of has a two sided cap layer.

There is four solid colors in the Horizon line also

Sand, Brick, Bronze and Slate

The railing system is called Horizon Plus which comes in six colors: white, black, sand, brick, bronze, and slate. The Mission profile is a flat top and standard bottom rail in all six colors, and the Provencal which is a bread loaf rounded top style, it only comes in white.

The Brick is the base color for the Ipe and the Bronze is the base color for the Rosewood. So if you wanted to have matching railings to the tropical colors you would choose the brick or the bronze colors, or you would go with a contrasting white or black colored railings.

We like the Fiberon Horizon Tropics because the price point is close to the basic first generation composite. But it has the durability of the more expensive PVC products and it looks the best of any other Composite/PVC products on the markets.

The Fiberon Horizon Tropics should be a big hit, and in my opinion it is the best looking composite/pvc product on the market.

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