How To Install Trex Composite Decking

welcome back to the channel guys in today's video i'm going to show you how to install trex decking and if you're new to this channel my name is josh this channel is all about building iron housing a ton of money so be sure to subscribe if you're into that and smash that like button if you find value in this video so the first thing we've got to do is chalk a line because we want that first piece of tracks nice and straight so let's get to it trex is five and a half inches wide so i want a half inch overhang so what i did i went to the far end of the deck here pulled over five inches put a nail hooked my chalk line to it came over here marked five inches and now i'm going to pull the chalk line really tight and snap a line so that way it gives me a half inch overhang all right so this is the first piece that we're going to be starting with this is the square edge trex you don't want to use the grooved edge for the first piece because you need to be able to have a flat surface here instead of that groove showing that doesn't look good so first thing we do we had to cut each end of not this end because his butt in the house didn't really matter but the far end of this board make sure you cut it square first because these boards do not come square just so you know okay so now i'm just going to line it up on my chalk line i made and i got about a quarter inch gap here from the house because you don't want to butt it tight and that looks good and now i just take an eighth inch bit stay about three quarters inch from the edge here so and we're going to pre-drill a hole here and then over here [Music] all right so that looks good and now i got these uh deck screws that are made for composite decking and if you need to know how to build a deck like this go ahead and check out the link above it will show you how to build this exact deck all right so now i'm going to go ahead and tack a screw here and these screws like i said are meant for composite and you must want to countersink it flush with the top of the decking board all right now that we got our first one started all you got to do is line the board up with the chalk line that we made and then put two screws in each joist let's get to it all right so i already installed the next board that goes up against the one we started and i wanted to show you that you need to leave a really fine gap here about an eighth inch now it's got a random piece of a metal here and uh so before i butted this one up to this i went ahead and put this in between put it tight and then put two screws here so now our starter board is done and now we gotta put brackets to uh get ready for the grooved boards so the easiest way i found install these first brackets i go on just go ahead and get a shim that's the same thickness of the gap that you're going to need go ahead and place the bracket right up against it take a little eighth inch drill bit and just so you can start the screw okay and then place your screw in that hole and then drive it tight all right now it's spaced out a perfect quarter inch and all these are ready to go now our next board you just slide right up into it and that groove catches it and then we can continue using our regular bits or screws and it's going to be the ones we use after this so you cannot use these to begin with because there's no groove in this starter piece for this to go into you got to use these brackets okay so as you can see i got the brackets on every joist going across here and now it's time to install this one and now this one you want to make sure you cut so that way you have a square edge because these do not come square out of the factory then you simply just slide it into these brackets and then make sure you push the board so it's square against the other board okay and then come back over to this one and make sure you got just a thin gap here between the two joints so something about like that that looks really good and now all you gotta do is push your uh board tight into this bracket and then take this fastener slide it into the groove and tighten it down all right so it should go a little something like this we have a slid into those brackets i'm going to push with my leg here and take this fastener slide it into the groove make sure you're really tight that looks good there we go and now come to your next one and do the same thing going clear across the whole board all right so after you get those brackets on i'm going to show you the system i found that works best for me i went ahead and cut these two boards and i have them spaced quarter inch from the house on each side and i'm out here at the joint and the joint looks what we looks like what we want so now what i'm going to do is go ahead and place this board into the slots i'm going to show you the best way to set the hidden fastener [Music] all right so after you have this board slid into the existing brackets that you have holding just take a hammer and this we gotta be real careful don't smack the board really hard just get a slight peck just barely tap it should slide right into those fasteners again don't hit it hard very easy because you will damage that board's edge all right so i got that tacked into place so once you have this tapped in tight to the other bracket go ahead and get a hidden fastener and place it in to the slot here and go ahead and snug it down do not tighten these brackets down when you go to hold it so you want to snug it down go ahead and do about two or three in a section again after a trial and error i found out for this to be the best way to go about this especially when you're working by yourself again don't get don't tighten these down yet just snug them up all right and after you got a section of them done in this case it's three now you tighten the ones back behind here snug well more than snug tight as if it was going to be there forever all right so now this section here is in place and it's going to stay there forever all right just to recap these are the three i just put in and i went ahead and put these in you can still almost wiggle these a little bit because you don't want those too tight because the next board slides into here it's going to be hard to line up right and you just want to make sure as you go tighten those up back here all the way so the system is again go ahead and put it tight against these hold your bracket up snug it up snug it up snug it up and then come back through tighten tighten tighten and then just do that throughout the whole length of the board all right now we got that 16 foot board fastened now we need to go ahead and butt this one up correctly okay so if space is correctly take your spacer slide into place and go ahead and slide your board into the existing hidden fasteners that looks good and now make sure your space correctly still that looks pretty good double check yep all right now take your hidden fastener here and make sure we're back all the way looks good and just snug it up all right looks good not super tight that's what you want for these and then tighten one back behind it all the way all right and then so on and so forth until you got this whole eight foot board on all the way to the wall all right and once we get to the end we need to put two screws here so what i do is pre-drill with the eighth inch drill bit first okay and then you take your composite decking screws so then you put a spacer here to make sure you're spaced correctly go ahead and start your screw and just countersink it into the tracks a little bit just so it's flush on top and then remove your spacer all right and now that's how you finish the ends of the tracks so a little tip that's going to help you be quicker get two drivers one for your decking screws and then the other for your hidden fastener um that way you don't want to switch the ends in and out all the time and then have a third tool which is going to be your eighth inch drill bit ready to go at all times because you use those three items frequently and if you're wondering what these hidden fasteners look like that's what they look like up close that end slides into the grooved part of the tracks and then this end here acts as a spacer so it's pretty nice little fastener they're expensive to be honest with you but it gives you a nice looking job when you're done so those are my tips okay i'm going to get back to putting down decking boards so what you want to do to make sure your trex is running true go ahead and measure from the house up to it and be sure that it's still running straight so right there we got a hundred inches and then over here go ahead and get in the middle of the deck somewhere and pull another measurement and um that way when you get up to the house that looks good so that way when you get up to the house you have a straight line going so it's not crooked just make sure when you started it it should have been straight to begin with but just case you start running off a little bit it's always smart to double check so just a little tip all right i ran out of tracks but i want to show you what you do when you get to the end here i got to order some more tracks it'll be here in like a week but what you do is let's say you need half of a piece to finish in a strip here at the end of it what you do is leave it about quarter inch shy and then put a screw where every joist is but a quarter inch from the edge so that way when you put your siding on your j-channel is about an inch thick it'll cover up that screw in the back and that's how you're going to finish up your decking so if you're wondering what saw i was using to cut the tracks i'm using this double bevel sliding dewalt saw but any brand saw clearly is fine but make sure you have a finer tooth blade on it for trim this is a 60 count blade but if you come over here make sure you get a stand that has these arms on it because this stuff's really flimsy the trex that is and these arms will definitely be used to support it you could always set up a workbench or a saw horse to handle the end of the tracks that's what i'm using is just this saw but if you look at this all check this out has this shadow line say using a laser uses a shadow i love it here is what the ends ended up looking like and there is nothing wrong with that we have a nice expansion gap it's hard to see in the video but there's a good quarter inch there for expansion and if you come over here if you look at our joints these joints turned out really nice and uniform can't complain there now i notice this stuff gets pretty warm when the sun hits it so all in all can't complain about it like i said i wait a week to get everything to finish up this section that's left but i got pretty far on it cannot complain all right guys i gotta go get my girl off the bus so i gotta run but i just wanna say thanks a lot for watching be sure to subscribe and smash that like button and again my name is josh and i appreciate you watching and i'll see you in the next video peace

Channel: The Excellent Laborer

Views: 180,623

Rating: 4.8992314 out of 5

Keywords: how to install trex, how to install trex composite decking, how to, how to install trex decking, trex decking, trex, composite decking, how to build a deck, how to install, installing trex decking, how to install composite decking, how to install trex transcend railing, trex transcend decking, decking, how to install trex transcend decking, how to install trex decking with hidden fasteners, how to install trex decks, how to do trex decking installation

Id: dTGthLQIRcs

Length: 14min 3sec (843 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 10 2021