Is Composite Decking Really “Maintenance-Free”?

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Welcome to another Q&A session where we answer questions from you all on the internet.

Today's question is:

"Is Composite Decking Really “Maintenance-Free”?"

Summary:

The owner clarifies that the term maintenance-free is mostly used in comparison to wood decking, which requires staining, painting, and pressure washing to maintain. Composite decking doesn't require any of that. However, he's careful to note that keeping a composite deck clean still involves basic upkeep like sweeping and rinsing it off with a hose, especially if pets track in mud. For tougher stains, he recommends something like an antibacterial wipe or baby wipe, which typically lifts stains right off. He stresses that the material has to be a high-quality composite for this to hold true, which is exactly why he recommends TimberTech specifically. A cheap composite, by contrast, comes with a host of problems, meaning the grade and quality of the composite matters just as much as the fact that it's composite in the first place.

Answer:

That's a great question. I think when the term maintenance-free is used, it's being used mostly in comparison to wood decking. With wood decking, if you want to maintain it, you have to stain it, paint it, sometimes pressure wash it, then stain it, then paint it again. With composite decking, you don't need to do any of that. So in that sense, it is maintenance-free. However, I tell people it's designed to be a product that doesn't require you to spend a bunch of time or money on maintenance, but if you want to keep it clean, you're going to want to do standard things like sweeping, and you can rinse it off with a hose if the dogs track mud on it. If somebody spills something like a stain, I've always used something like an antibacterial wipe or a baby wipe over the years, and typically that works really well and takes the stain right up. So for the most part, it really is a maintenance-free product. Now, with composite, it has to be a high-quality composite, which is why I recommend TimberTech. If you use a cheap composite, everything's out the window and you're going to deal with everything you can imagine. But if you use a quality composite, it really is essentially maintenance-free, other than your typical sweeping, rinsing off, or using a wipe to clean up a stain, which it's also very resistant to. Unfortunately, I'd estimate almost twenty percent of the people we work with come to us because they have a newer composite deck that either used a cheap composite, was installed incorrectly, or both, and now they're dealing with issues. The grade of the composite really does matter just as much as it being composite in the first place.