Should I use TREX to replace my front porch?

[Cary Falk]

I did our deck with Trex 7 years ago. It still looks as good as new. It replaced a 13 year old cedar deck that was rotten. I did oru front porch last year. It may be expensive but it is maintenance free.

[Mel Fulks]

I neglected to say that most people, these days, coat the painted canvas with polyurethane.

[roger wiegand]

So porches where I come from are open on three sides (perhaps screened, usually not) and run all or part of the way across a side of the house, in extremes wrapping all the way around. Generally relatively narrow (just enough room for a chair and room to pass), meant to provide cover for the door, block strong summer sunlight into the house, and perhaps enough space to sit and visit with people walking by on the street.

That said, I'd use trex or its ilk on a fully exposed deck. But for a porch, again depending on the style of the house, I'd use vertical grain fir porch decking, run perpendicular to the long axis to the porch (ie the opposite of typical deck construction), so that it runs rom the building to the edge of the porch with a slight pitch (maybe 1/2" over six feet) so that water tends to run off. Then paint with a good quality oil-based porch and floor enamel. At least in New England that's been how porches have been done for a long time, plenty of examples around where the decking has survived for 100+ years with regular maintenance. Putting a plastic porch on a 1-200 year old house would be right up there with wrapping it in plastic siding in my book.

The fir decking is a product I've not particularly seen in other parts of the country, but is ubiquitous here.

[dennis thompson]

In doing some research I came across a similar product at Home Depot called Fiberon. I did a comparison of four different Fiberon products ranging from $25 to $46 per board. All the dimensions were exactly the same, as were all the warranties (25 years). So is the difference in price just "marketing" or what else do you think could account for the wide range of prices?

Thanks

[Jerome Stanek]

In doing some research I came across a similar product at Home Depot called Fiberon. I did a comparison of four different Fiberon products ranging from $25 to $46 per board. All the dimensions were exactly the same, as were all the warranties (25 years). So is the difference in price just "marketing" or what else do you think could account for the wide range of prices?

Thanks

I used Fiberon on my deck 12 years ago and it still looks new. You just have to clean it

[Jack Frederick]

I have a small porch off the back of the house in Trex. I did not want to face nail/screw the stuff down. tried a number of mounting options and ended up with the Camo system. It worked very well. Seven years and the deck and steps are still in great shape. Now, this is in a dry as a bone CA and the porch gets only late afternoon summer sun.

[Gary Ragatz]

We have a Trex deck on the back of our home. Very happy with it after 4 1/2 years. Not zero maintenance, but certainly low maintenance. Ours was done with the "Hideaway" fasteners, so no surface nails/screws, except on the stairs. Our joists are 16" OC, and I cannot create any flex between joists (I weigh about 210).

[BOB OLINGER]

We put down Trex about 2 yrs ago when we built our deck. It was the most expensive of the options of this type of material. We are very satisfied. Yes, it's a little hot in dead summer - just put on a pair of sandals. I highly suggest this brand.

[Lisa Starr]

We used a product that I believe came from Azek. It is milled T&G and quite narrow like real porch floors. It was definitely a DIY project, but did require trim screws for laying it. It is great to care for, a quick brooming and it is clean, no repainting and no rot.

[Tom Bender]

I have a few failures to report on my 'mercifuly small' side porch.

Plain wood rotted after a few years. Wanted a solid T&G deck so I cut grooves in TREX and made splines of TREX. Looked good for a couple years till moisture caused the splines to swell. Also the planks softened some and the edges started breaking off. (insert bad words here)

Replaced it with Cedar, painted both sides. In a few years the paint peeled. Removed, scraped off almost all of the paint. Repainted with good primer and paint, both sides and reinstalled. A few years later that peeled. (more bad words)

Installed TREX properly. Several years later it still looks great.

[Ole Anderson]

I have a large deck done with the original Trex about 20 years ago, known to have issues with mold. It fronts my entire home. Yearly power washing and use of a chlorine based deck cleaner has kept it in check. A water side deck and two docks, all built at different times with the composite capped with solid plastic (all different brands I might add) have fared much better, just needing a power wash once a year. Except for the newest dock, all decking was retrofit requiring doubling up on joists, although I just used 2x4 material to tie adjacent boards together. I face screwed all of the decks using proper matching deck screws (not bugle head), paying attention to even spacing and just flush embedment.