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3 Reasons to Choose Composite Decking Over Wood Decking

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Are you wanting to build a deck or a patio in your backyard this summer? Have you been looking over deck plans to find one that will suit your needs or that can be adapted to fit your home? Having a deck can be a great extension of your house, acting almost like an extra room. However, there is more to building a deck than simply finding plans that you like. You also need to decide what to build the deck out of.

Building a wood deck is always popular, but composite deck material is another choice. There are several reasons why you might want to use a composite material, some of which include:

Prevent decay

In order to prevent insect damage or things like dry rot, you'll need to paint or stain a wooden deck on an annual basis. But even with the best preventative maintenance, a fully wooden deck may only last a relatively few years before decay starts to take over. You may be able to replace just a few pieces at first but you'll soon have to replace a substantial portion of the deck, perhaps even the whole thing. Composite decking, on the other hand, is composed of a plastic material surrounding wood fibers. This makes it better able to resist insects and rot, meaning that your deck could potentially last a lifetime.

Fire resistant

Wood can obviously burn quite easily. This can be somewhat problematic if you want to use your deck for grilling or to hold a metal fire pit. Fortunately, composite decking is much more fire-resistant. Although almost everything will burn if subjected to a high enough temperature, you can buy composite materials that have a higher ignition temperature than most woods. For the purposes of grilling and other similar activities, this will make your deck essentially fireproof.

Save money

Composite decking can sometimes cost a little bit more up front than most types of wood. When calculating the final costs of everything, though, many people fail to take into account the materials needed to stain or paint the deck the first time. Once you add in these costs and then the cost of repeating this step on a yearly basis, composite materials can easily pay for themselves in just a couple of years. Although you can buy composite material in a variety of colors, you can also paint the deck later if you should choose to do so. Unlike regular wood, this isn't a requirement.


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