There is a new trend in the way wood decks are constructed; composite decks and railings. Recently had the opportunity to go on a bidding job with a deck cleaning contractor to bid on cleaning and treating a large deck. When we got there we found out the deck was not made of wood at all; it was made of composite. There was nothing to treat unless of course you want a spray with armor all. It did clean rather nicely kind of like washing a plastic fence. The new trend in composite railings has come about because the final railings do a better job facing down the elements and therefore owners and contractors often decide to put in the composite railings even though there are slightly more expensive because they look great for much longer.
Composite railings that are built too long between posts generally have a problem with separation so the posts seem to be closer together, when they are not debris gets inside any between the spaces often bugs crawl and it makes a general mess, when cleaning composite railings you may notice quite a bit of dirt coming down between the cracks and therefore it takes a lot more Flushing Power to clean the deck than it would a wood only deck. When using more water you have twice the chance of flooding the vegetation below if there is any in this case there was, one of the most beautiful flower gardens I have seen in any middle-class neighborhood. We would need to cover the flowers and find proper drainage for the excess water or actually uses squirt bottle and do them by hand. We imagine that if the lady watched us use a squirt bottle, that she would probably throw our butts out in the cul-de-sac.
One of the composite railings that we've been most impressed with has been from Crystal White Corporation. Their weather best natural wood vinyl is sturdy and attractive and very easy to clean, almost too easy almost like we should not even charge for clean Crystal White also makes docks which attached to concrete walk ways. The “U” beam construction makes it very easy clean and just in case we screw up is guaranteed for 10 years. Although I would say is very hard to screw up since you not need chemicals to clean it, therefore it is nearly impossible to damage wall washing. Crystal White Corporation has post every 6 to 8 feet therefore the expansion and contraction of the composite does not seem to be an issue or cause separation. Unfortunately we have also noticed that is very low maintenance and is not need to be cleaned every year, so we're losing a few sales but it looks magnificent when completed in since it is not made of wood but rather a composite wood polymeric substrate capped with co-extruded PVC it never needs sanding, painting or coating.
