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Thu, Feb 14, 13 at 14:22
| First world problem, I know. But my DH and I are at odds over replacing and ugly, rotting pair of awkward decks off the back of our house and I am saying, why bother with another deck? Our house is a 3000+ sw ft Colonial on a bit of a slope. Our lot is a 1/4 acre. I want a spot for a hot tub, a screen porch so we can eat in peace, and a sunning deck for our teenage kids and their friends. We also eat outside-a ton and we have family over all the time (so dinners for 12 routinely.) But I am also the one who every year has to clean, restain, repair, the *&^$ing thing, and guess what? all that stuff goes right into the ground over the course of the year, and I am no environmentalist, but that is just bad news. So what are the options? I have yet to see an attractive (be honest) fake wood decking product, and the african varieties seem to be quite un-PC (something about having chil laborers deforesting whole areas there, not cool)... We are talking about a deck that will run 60' or so along the back of the house. So LOTs of whatever we use. Everyone here just builds decks, but it rains SO DANG MUCH is just seems like a bad idea. Suggestions please. My best outside living arrangements in previous locales were cement floored patios with overhangs, or one had that plastic (ugly) roofing over one half (where you could stay dry/cool and store furniture in the winter) and the other half had 2 x 4's on their thin sides for filtered light. My husband seems to want the 'height' of a deck, and to be sure, walking out our backdoor, you are four feet off the ground. But we aren't overlooking Mt. Hood, just a lush green yard and greenspace. I'd love to see pictures or hear ideas or suggestions. Oh, and our deck faces the HOT sun. So it is impossible to enjoy from 11-6 in the summer without shade near the house. The yard is shaded by trees. An inexpensive gazebo has saved us these past years, but it is time to be grown-ups and find a permanent solution to our deck situation. |
Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by weedyacres (My Page) on Mon, Feb 18, 13 at 19:17
| Is just the decking rotting out or the structure as well? You can avoid annual re-staining by just letting it weather to gray. When you say "african varieties" are you talking about the brazilian hardwoods like ipe, garapa, and cumaru? Or something different? |
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- Posted by TheTradition (My Page) on Thu, Feb 21, 13 at 14:48
| Quite a rant, lol. With your requirements, I'd replace the deck with an actual sunroom that can be shaded from the sun when needed. With the windows open it can still feel like "outside" and as a bonus, it can be heated when necessary. Probably a lot more money, though. |
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| I got tired of staining my cedar decks every couple of years so I had the 2x6 cedar flooring boards covered with cement board (used thinset and nailed) and then taped all of the seams of the cement board, installed a waterproofing compound, and then had porcelian tile laid....no more maintenance :)
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