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jmac1145

Has anyone installed Last-Deck?

jmac1145
14 years ago

I've been over and over the composite choices and see too many mold and fade issues that I am afraid to go that route. In my searches, I also found some companies that make aluminum decking, notably Lockdry and Last-Deck. I was impressed with both, but especially the colors that Last-Deck has to offer. I had some conversation with a couple putting Lockdry in and would like to hear from them again if it is now installed. Anyway, I'm leaning toward the Last-Deck product, but would like to find someone who has installed it. I would like to know their experience with the feel of it underfoot, any problems with expansion/contraction and how they feel the color coating will hold up over the years.

Comments (21)

  • thoskam
    14 years ago

    What part of the country are you in? I have a buddy in the mid-west who sells and installs Last-Deck materials- good guy. He could give you any info you needed.

  • jmac1145
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    I'm south of Buffalo NY, long winters, thus lots of work on cedar deck every year. Getting too old for that and looking for something with a little less upkeep. I've gotten some samples from Lastdeck which I liked but did not get the wood grain ones which I prefer. I haven't talked to Lastdeck yet, was hoping to find existing customers and see how it holds up and how they like the feel and sound.

  • leb4373_yahoo_com
    13 years ago

    I am looking at installing this on my deck, as well. I don't like the disadvantages of composite or wood and the aluminum decking is really appealing to me. Did you end up installing it on your deck? Do you like it? Can you share anything from your experience?

  • adbva
    12 years ago

    I have just completed an 1100 sq ft installation of the last deck waterproof decking. We are having some issues that we are trying to work through with the manufacturer. I will put another follow-up post to this web site once Doug Deel has committed to a resolution.

  • adbva
    12 years ago

    I have sent three 3 emails to Doug Deel the president of Last Deck concerning issues I am having with the finish on our deck. He has replied once saying they would not take care of any problems I am having. I am still waiting to hear back from him after a follow-up email was sent. I will continue to update, but at this time I would not recommend installing this product.

  • adbva
    12 years ago

    Doug Deel, President of Last Deck, has replied and he will do nothing to correct all the problems I am having. I would NOT even consider buying this product. Secondly, I will pick up any potential Last Deck customers from St. Louis or Kansas City airports and take you to my house so you can see first hand the issues I am having with a brand new $15,000 deck. From there, you can make your own decision if you would consider this product.

  • leb4373
    12 years ago

    Adbva - would you mind posting pictures or writing a summary of the problems you are having? Or could you private message me with the details? We are seriously considering Last Deck and are about to make a decision on purchasing it. It would be extremely valuable to us to have information on your experience with the product. There is not a lot of information available about this product, good or bad and I want to be able to go in with my eyes as wide open as possible. Thanks!

  • oandbcarpentry_yahoo_com
    12 years ago

    I have installed the "waterproof" version of last deck. Installation is not that hard if you have basic building skills, but we did have numerous issues with the finish and no apparent fix, the hand rail and the lack of instructions to install it and most importantly leaks. It took 6 months for them to develop but we now have several seams in the middle of the deck that are leaking and ruining a very expensive oak ceiling. Mr Deel told me this is the only deck that has ever leaked and that it is impossible for his product to leak, so I was wondering if in fact my deck was the only one to leak.

  • adbva
    12 years ago

    I will post pics soon. My issues are that the deck planks are not the same color. Last Deck, as the previous person stated, said this had never happened before. The did send my a partial refund. I was not satisfied but had no option. I would of had to remove deck, package, and return at my cost to get a replacement product. The the next issue. The majority of my deck is rusted. Yes rusted. What they are assuming happened is that when my steel rail was being reinstalled, the metal particles from grinding to fit the new deck, landed on the powder coat and rusted it. IT WILL NOT CLEAN OFF. Doug Deel said it is not their problem and walked away. He knew my rail was steel and never said this could be a problem. Again, my deck is 1100 sq ft and I invested $15,000 in labor and material (for the deck planking ) not the structure and this is the response I got from the company. When they told my I was the first person in Missouri to have this product...What the heck was I thinking!

  • maggpie3_aol_com
    12 years ago

    A message for adbva about the rust stains ,I have had the same problem as you with embeded steel grindings after finishing a stainless steel railing for a customer,I forgot to change my polishing wheel that had been used for steel pryer,and guess what of course after it was installed it started rusting all over!thank god the customer was willing to let me make good,you need to use a good product with oxolic acid,I used a product called F.S.R you will find it at a good marine supply company it should not hurt your finish,and may take many apps.As for the color issue it must not have been the same paint run and I have had this happen many times over the years with many pre coated products if the color is close the sunlight may help to blend them.Hope all works out and with my near 40 years working in the metal fabricating trade I,ve seen it all.GOOD LUCK.

  • cheerpeople
    12 years ago

    I have the deck install step by step in my photobucket album. It is nearing completion and is a last-deck. I think it is too bad none of the previous folks posted pics.

    it is here:

    http://s7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/cheerpeople/

    There are other remodeling pics mixed in so keep looking. You can go all the way back to the original crappy wood deck. Pics are labelled with info for you if you choose to click on them.

    Here is a link that might be useful:

  • Sarah
    10 years ago

    Any other opinions/pics from anyone who has installed Lockdry (Lock Dry) decks? Particularly in New England? We're weighing the pros and cons of decking materials for a large deck and Lockdry seems to be the way we want to go, but we have never seen one installed. Thanks!

  • D. W.
    8 years ago

    Hello everyone. I just ran across this thread while doing a Google search looking to see if anyone other than us has had problems with "Last Deck" aluminum decks.

    I realize this is an old thread but hope others will find my comments about "Last Deck" decking.

    We live in Idaho, near Boise. We purchased the "Last Deck" decking material in 2012 and installed it the next summer in 2013. We bought it to replace the aging redwood planks on a 16' x 25' deck that I had previously built in 1990.

    The "Last Deck" installation process was straight forward and fairly simple and went down with no problems.

    However, the powder coating on the decking planks is absolutely terrible with extremely poor adhesion. I'm not for real sure it's even powder coated as claimed. I have a few other powder coated products that get much more abuse than our deck does and they show no problems at all.

    Our deck is attached to the N. side of the house foundation with lawn (grass and shrubs) on the N. and E. side of it with a large pavers patio on the W. side which situates the deck where no sand, gravel, or any course grit gets tracked onto it that could cause chips, scratches etc.

    Just the same, we have many, many, spots of what looked at first glance to be chips but when looked at closely, it's simply the powder coating that's basically just peeling up in several spots. A few of these are the size of a nickel and a couple are quarter size.

    The powder coating (which again, I almost think is just a paint and not a powder coating at all) also stains, even water from washing it will leave stains when the water dries in the sun.

    This summer we now have what looks like small scratches in several places but are actually small lines where the powder coating is simply coming off from poor to no adhesion.

    These chip looking spots started within the first summer of installation and started out as small and then continue to get larger.

    We have a table and 6 chairs on this deck as well and we put felt on the bottoms of the legs as soon as we finished the deck.

    My wife has called the Co. 3-4 different times describing the problems. We finally sent some photos of the problem areas as they requested.

    "Last Deck's" final response was that we tear off the decking material --20 foot and 5 foot-- lengths and send it back to them. They would then evaluate and possibly replace the material.

    This was not and is not an option as we live in Idaho and they are in Minn. The shipping alone makes this option prohibitive. Our only other option was to let then send us a bottle of touch-up paint.

    The deck looks worse by the month. Buying "Last Deck" decking has turned out to be a very expensive mistake. In hind site, the old redwood decking looked better than our new "Last Deck" decking does...!

    I would definitely NOT recommend "Last Deck" products to anyone unless you're very close to the Co. when replacement time comes.

    D. Walker

  • sherryastanley
    8 years ago

    I just had an aluminum deck installed and decided on going with Nexan, which produces Next Deck and Lock Dry. Everyone at Nexan was helpful and responsive; the product so far seems superior. I got samples from a few different companies and liked theirs the best.

    I think the original post asked about the experience of walking on an aluminum deck. It's a bit different, a slight give to it, but everyone considers that fun. It's just very slight, and since aluminum is much stronger than wood, everything feels exceptionally solid. I can walk on it anytime of the day in bare feet ---- couldn't do that on my old wood deck. I'm looking forward to the lack of maintenance and the longevity of this deck (it will certainly outlast me).

  • D. W.
    8 years ago

    Hi Sherry. If the deck in the picture is your deck, it looks like you went with a good color which hopefully won't fade in color to much.

    I forgot to mention in my post about the Last Deck that we bought is that it FADES TERRIBLE.

    In just the 2 summers that it's been down, it's a completely different, (much lighter), grayish and stained whiteish color than it was when we installed it.

    It was originally a charcoal/bronze color which, aside from the mistake we made with going with Last Deck in the first place... we should not have gone with the dark color that we chose because of the way the color fades out. It's nothing close to what it was in the beginning. But again, we listened to the Last Deck people that assured us that it wouldn't fade!

    The Last Deck, deck has been one of the bigger mistakes that we've ever done, bar none!!

    Hopefully you have much better luck with yours than we've had with our Last Deck.

    D. Walker

  • PortiaL
    7 years ago

    Anyone with updated photos and experiences with aluminium decks? We are presently looking at our options for a new build and would like to hear from deck owners and their thoughts.

  • Sue New
    3 years ago

    We installed an aluminum deck about 10 years ago using Last Deck "deck boards" and aluminum railing from a local big box store. It looked awesome and has done the job of being very low maintenence for the past ten years; however, the paint continues to delaminate from the Last Deck boards. This delamination is anywhere from chips on the edges to 2-3' peel-ups along the board surfaces.


    Last Deck stated they would furnish new product to replace the poor product pieces we have, but given the interlocking nature of the product - it's not merely just replacing one board like on a conventional deck, but rather practically disassembling the entire deck: taking off the railing and taking many boards off to get to the poor board needing replacing. It's rebuilding the whole deck over and over again.


    WE DO NOT RECOMMEND ALUMINUM DECKING FROM LAST DECK. Product quality is incredibly poor and it's a horror story because you have to rebuild the deck over again to replace pieces. The deck will not rot, but it no longer looks good because bright aluminum is shiny through where the paint has delaminated.

  • topaden
    4 months ago
    last modified: 4 months ago

    Tom Marotta

    Saratoga Springs, NY

    A National Product Warning. DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT !

    This company & owner are not honorable.

    I purchased this decking in 2009 for our new home. After only five years chipping & peeling begun. Little to no installation instructions were provided, fasteners provided were so short the whole system squeak's horribly. After contacting the company several times there only response was to rip apart my deck and ship back the panels to Minnesota at my expense for evaluation. Being a ridiculous request, the owner sent me paint to do my own touch up. As of today decking is deteriorating much more. Finish is chipping, cracking , peeling and bubbling up. If you know anyone considering this product please share. I think if some one in Minn. was willing we all could start a Class Action Lawsuit. Since out of state customers have no rights even for small claims court in their state.


  • D. W.
    4 months ago
    last modified: 4 months ago

    Do yourself a favor and stay away from 'Last Deck' decking. Our Last Deck decking is covered with rain currently but should be clear by the middle of this week, I'll re-post some pictures of what it looks like then, TERRIBLE! Terrible fading and the coating's peeling off everywhere. We've had it now for approx. 10 years and it started going to he** on the second year.

    We contacted Last Deck at that time and they said, "send it back and we'll replace it". Our deck is 16' by 25'. We're in Idaho and the deck was of course already installed, not a very good option. I send many pictures of the problems to them and the answer was "send it back and we'll replace it".

    I tried to get some sort of partial refund because it wasn't as advertised at all. The response was again, "send it back and we'll replace it".

    The cost to take it up and ship it back to them to just end up with another batch of crap would've been waaayyyy extreme cost wise, and then needing to re-install it all over again only to end up with the same problems.

    This Last Deck aluminum decking is absolute junk, IMO. I'll try and get some new pics. this next week and post them to give a good view of the Last Deck quality.

    The name suits..., it will obviously be the very 'Last Deck' we would EVER buy from them, absolute junk !!






  • D. W.
    4 months ago
    last modified: 4 months ago

    New photos of our 10 yr. old "Last Deck" showing what happens after a couple years. A few chips/and small spots started showing at the end of the first summer after installing, then the second summer it all started to go. Peeling started during the second year after installed and gets worse by the month. BEWARE of "Last Deck" deck material. As another mentioned, I'd love to get involved in a class action lawsuit with this Co. We have a powder coated railing around this deck made by a different Co. that was installed at the same time as the deck and it still looks new. I've often wondered if this deck is actually even powder coated as they claim or just paint? I don't think professional powder coating would go to he** this fast. I still have some scraps of the deck left over that I keep thinking about having checked for just paint vs. powder coating but never have got around to it!