My 7-yr old pressure-treated deck is starting to look bad on the flat
surface. The boards are cupping, cracking and its getting to be more
difficult to stain it.
The vertical boards (the skirting, the rails, etc are fine). Its the
flat horizontal boards that are bad.

What would it take to replace the flat surfaces with trex? Would the
rails have to be dismantled/removed, or can the replacements be put in
place around them?

Is it a good idea to do this?

Also, I had used a solid dark cedar stain on my deck. So the rails
still have this color. If I get the dark trex, I am hoping this would
match the rails, so I don't have to restain the rails.

Any ideas/suggestions would help. Thanks.
Mark Sabatini

On Apr 25, 11:54*am, wrote:
My 7-yr old pressure-treated deck is starting to look bad on the flat
surface. The boards are cupping, cracking and its getting to be more
difficult to stain it.
The vertical boards (the skirting, the rails, etc are fine). Its the
flat horizontal boards that are bad.

What would it take to replace the flat surfaces with trex? Would the
rails have to be dismantled/removed, or can the replacements be put in
place around them?

Is it a good idea to do this?

Also, I had used a solid dark cedar stain on my deck. So the rails
still have this color. If I get the dark trex, I am hoping this would
match the rails, so I don't have to restain the rails.

Any ideas/suggestions would help. Thanks.
Mark Sabatini

Cupping means they were installed upside down, Look at the end to see
the grain curve, fix the boards, and rent a floor sander but you are
sanding off CCA you dont want to breathe, or hire a floor sanding
company, it will be new again, ive done it.

In article 53da0e17-d846-405d-9368-2a47dc4aa580@
27g2000hsf.googlegroups.com, says...
On Apr 25, 11:54*am, wrote:
My 7-yr old pressure-treated deck is starting to look bad on the flat
surface. The boards are cupping, cracking and its getting to be more
difficult to stain it.
The vertical boards (the skirting, the rails, etc are fine). Its the
flat horizontal boards that are bad.

What would it take to replace the flat surfaces with trex? Would the
rails have to be dismantled/removed, or can the replacements be put in
place around them?

Is it a good idea to do this?

Also, I had used a solid dark cedar stain on my deck. So the rails
still have this color. If I get the dark trex, I am hoping this would
match the rails, so I don't have to restain the rails.

Any ideas/suggestions would help. Thanks.
Mark Sabatini

Cupping means they were installed upside down, Look at the end to see
the grain curve, fix the boards, and rent a floor sander but you are
sanding off CCA you dont want to breathe, or hire a floor sanding
company, it will be new again, ive done it.

Mine were too split to sand, so took 'em off an flipped the boards.
It was good (with a half dozen replacements) for another ten years,
though they were now upside down.

--
Keith

In article ,
says...

My 7-yr old pressure-treated deck is starting to look bad on the flat
surface. The boards are cupping, cracking and its getting to be more
difficult to stain it.
The vertical boards (the skirting, the rails, etc are fine). Its the
flat horizontal boards that are bad.

What would it take to replace the flat surfaces with trex? Would the
rails have to be dismantled/removed, or can the replacements be put in
place around them?

Is it a good idea to do this?

Also, I had used a solid dark cedar stain on my deck. So the rails
still have this color. If I get the dark trex, I am hoping this would
match the rails, so I don't have to restain the rails.

Any ideas/suggestions would help. Thanks.
Mark Sabatini

You can use the PT boards again the way others have said, or you can replace
with Trex (or other composite) for its greater longevity. Either way is
reasonable.

IMO you don't need to worry about staining to match the PT rails, etc. I
actually plan to, once I replace my deck, having a Trex or other composite deck
with PT rails exactly because the PT vertical surfaces stand up much longer as
you've noted. I see lots of decks built that way. And I plan to stain the PT
rails and get a Trex color that contrasts nicely with that, and not worry about
matching them.

Besides, I've heard the composites don't take stain well, but there has been a
lot of development of the composite stuff since I looked into this..

Banty