Home Remodeling Center

After 10 years of heavy use the wood on our deck was done. The railings were rotten and every spring I was replacing 10% of the boards. I decided that it was time to replace the decking.

The deck on our house is about 10 years old and about 50 feet long by 10 feet. Large enough that I did not relish the though of a month of Sundays on my knees hammering! It was constructed with pressure treated joists and posts and untreated/unstained spruce decking.

I was pleased when I ripped off the old decking material that the joists and support posts were in great shape. In fact after a quick hose down they looked brand new. Pressure treated wood really does stand up. I only had one post that had 6 inches of rot in the top where the railing had rotted through.

I really wanted to replace the decking with something that was going to fit in with the house and stand up. Our house is all cedar - sides and roof, so it had to be a natural product. Vinyl just wouldn't fit in.

After having witnessed first hand how well the pressure treated lumber held up I was inclined to go with that. However I have 3 small children - 1 still crawling - and I was afraid of the treated splinters that would get into their feet. Although pressure treated lumber for residential use no longer contains arsenic, there are still chemicals and compounds and things like copper that I just didn't want to expose my kids to.

Then I looked at cedar decking. Although more expensive then pressure treated lumber it is a 100% natural product that is resistant to rot and insects without any chemicals.  Not to mention that cedar is a beautiful choice - the color of the wood is deep and if you let it weather it turns to grey that no stain could match.

So to me the logical choice is cedar. It requires no stain or chemicals to be rot resistant and is lovely to look at. However it is far more costly then other choices. My second choice is to use untreated wood and to stain it well.  If seal the wood on both sides with a quality stain then you should get 10 years or more out of your decking.  And if you consider that untreated wood can be less then half the cost of cedar then it may make sense for you to go this route. With a 50 X 10 foot deck I this is my option. Cedar just is not affordable enough for me.