Decking material help...

Hello everyone,
1st post! I look forward to finding great information and posting my experiences on this site.

I built a deck using a premium grade, severe weather decking surface end of May 2006. While waiting for the decking to dry out before applying stain/sealant, it started to crack and flake.

I'm sure the weather/sun had everything to do with it, but should premium severe weather decking fail after a few months?

If you want to see...
http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m163/paulbro/Misc/wood.jpg

Thanks!

 

Welcome to the forums!

Your picture illustrates how most types of bare pressure treated wood will look after 11 months in the sun, rain, snow. It appears quite rough on the board you chose to photograph, but that's due to the open plain-sawn face grain of the wood on that sample.

All I could suggest is that perhaps it would not have weathered as quickly if it had a high quality preservative / deck sealer applied to it approximately 6 weeks after installation. Thompson's water seal and others that contain parafin are not highly regarded unless you plan on applying it several times per season.

Unless you'd like to unscrew planks, flip them over and screw them back down, about all you can do now is sand the surface down and apply sealer- something you'll need to do almost every year if you want to get the most life out of your deck. Even "premium grade, severe weather" wood is not maintenance free. This is why composite decking is increasing in popularity, despite it's high initial cost. It requires less maintenance and looks better longer.

 

And this board was installed upside down, anyway, so it is cupped and will hold water, freeze and separate the grains.