If you’ve got a back yard you probably have a deck of some sort and decks mean wood or do they? My deck is about 25 years old and is starting to rot out in certain spots so I have been looking at different options for repair or replacement. Composite decking is one of the choices I’ve seen more often lately and would appear to be a green option. The reason I thought of it as a Green choice is because it uses less wood products, it’s actually made of vinyl and leftover wood pulp and is supposed to be maintenance free. After some research it may not be as green a choice as I originally thought.

Here are a few reasons why composite decking might be considered un-green.

Low Maintenance?
The talk is that composite decking is maintenance free, well this is apparently not true. Over time, maybe as little time as a few years, composite decking can get very scratched up and start to look older than it’s actual age. There are products out there that will return some of the original look but these require a paint brush but that sounds like maintenance to me.

Will it look good forever
The boards are made of leftover pulp from trees that aren’t considered wet tolerant, such as pine. That means that any little bits of wood fiber exposed to the weather will be affected by the weather. Mold can be a major problem. Again there are products to prevent or repair this problem but once again that’s maintenance.

Cleaning or repair products
These products used for cleaning or repairing the composite are chemical based which is pretty much the opposite of green I’d say.

How Long Do They Really Last
Should an owner of composite decking decide that it doesn’t look good anymore and discard it then this product would last a long time in a landfill.

Based on this online research I’ve decided against this product but I would still like to talk to someone at a lumber yard to see how many complaints they’ve had. As it sits I’m still looking for alternatives for my deck repairs.

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