When you want to build a deck, one of your main concerns is usually related to the material that you are going to use. After all, you want to make sure that your deck is not only beautiful as it is durable as well.
In what comes to the materials used when building a deck, they have been changing throughout the years. In the olds days, the materials that were used more frequently were cedar, redwood, and pressure treated wood. In the last couple of years, a new trend emerged and home owners started using composites. However, this was never a unanimous position since while some home owners love it, others just can’t stand it. And then you have ipe decking.
In order to make a well-thought decision, you need to know a bit more about each one of these materials.
#1: Redwood And Cedar:
Both redwood and cedar were usually preferred because of their strong performance records. They used to have a life span of more than 30 years and were extremely resistant to bugs. However, with the huge demand and the fact that these woods started to become scarce, the prices increased a lot. So, home owners needed to look for better options.
#2: Pressure Treated Wood:
There are many advantages when you choose pressure treated wood. One of the main ones is the price that is quite affordable. Plus, the fact that it’s very easy to work with led to many home owners to choose this material for their decks. However, there’s a great catch – the maintenance. When you decide to use pressure treated wood in your deck, you’ll need to strip, sand, and stain every single year so that your deck continues to look amazing. As if this wasn’t bad enough, there were some recent studies that showed that this kind of wood can release chemicals when wet.
#3: Composites:
When composites appeared, they seemed like the “holy-grail”. They hadn’t any disadvantages and had the best qualities of wood. As you can imagine, this turned out to be false. What happened was that after a lot of home owners used it to build their decks, they started noticing unstable boards as well as mold formation. While most companies tried to handle the complaints as they could, the truth is that the problems are still very evident up until today.
The truth is that composites are not really wood; they are more a kind of plastic product that isn’t as strong as wood, as well as it needs special installations processes and techniques to make sure that you get a safe deck.
#4: Ipe:
One of the latest trends for building decks is the use of ipe. When you are looking for a 100% natural dark brown hardwood that requires almost any maintenance, then ipe might be a great option to consider. One of the main advantages of this wood is the fact that it has a lifespan of more than 75 years due to its naturally occurring preservative oils as well as to its high density.
In terms of the maintenance that it requires, you just need to do a casual sweeping and rinsing with some warm water. In order to preserve the color, you can do some coating with Ipe Oil and your deck will as good as new.
As you can see, you have a lot of options from the more expensive to the most affordable ones. The truth is that when you build a deck, you want to make sure that it lasts in good conditions. Considering the pros and cons of these 4 materials, there’s no question that the best one you can choose is ipe.