How to install Trex composite decking

Eric here with the Perkins motor brothers if you're watching this video right now you're getting ready to learn the top 10 things that you need to know before you install composite decking we are using tricks to select brand decking and it's a coated decking that means it has a solid plastic layer around the outside we'll be putting down a color called saddle now this particular Trek's product will cost about 6 dollars a square foot for the material plus fasteners if you're interested in using it good luck to you ok number one you cannot have more than a 16 inch on center spacing on your joist trex decking does not have any structural value so if you have 24 inch on center joists the decking is likely to sag between the joists in it'll look terrible and feel like a trampoline you may want to crawl under your deck and check your joist spacing before you rip off your decking and replace it because it's gonna be a lot more work if you have to add an extra joist between all your 24 inch on center joists to make it 12 inches on Center for your new trex decking number 2 snap chalk lines to space your boards evenly and also keep them straight because these deck boards are not necessarily straight we're doing 3/16 over the width of the deck board to give us a good spacing and see how that works this is the story pole here I'm sliding around I basically have marked all of the marks onto this end of the deck to chop my lines across here number three plan on buying extra material to do blocking around the outside joist right here two by six and this allows to run a piece of band decking for all this other decking to button to in this direction so you don't see the cut ends usually composite decking is not the same color all the way through see if you see the cut ends it never looks good so we've got these basically supporting this blocking flush on top here's this rim piece of decking installed on the other side and you can see the ends of this stuff don't look that good so this will butt in like so and you'll see a nice rounded edge instead of that nasty edge number four use the right screws these are specifically made for composite decking they have two different kind of spirals and a little bit of a cutter head on the tip this will cut its own hole and it will set flush without mushrikeen without mushrooming your decking [Music] [Music] number five you will need to cut all of the factory ends on these boards where they butt together none of them are square from the factory number six this stuff is flimsy let's check it out I can barely hold it like this what do people preferably seven and maybe the most important tip to not lose your mind is to build yourself some little outriggers so screwed to the deck band so that you can lay your outside board up here you can bump it tight with a square you can mark your posts all the way down you can mark your next post right here and here you can cut around it and the board has something to sit on for you to mark it and cut it since this is so flimsy you can't hold it like that about four people [Music] number eight if you have to put a screw near the end of one of these boards and you don't pre-drill it it will split use a combo bit like this don't let the countersink get into it but as a nice sharp point we'll start right where you want drill yourself a hole number nine do not be surprised when it takes you twice as long to put composite decking down as regular treated decking think about this stuff AJ this stuff's much harder than I thought [Laughter] number ten for a perfect fit on these outside corners but one side run square come on and see that this side is not cut at an angle right there and we will take our oscillating tool and go straight out this face right here to cut this board at the exact same angle even if this angle is a little off 45 so your gate you'll get a perfect fit on your corner [Music]

Channel: Perkins Builder Brothers

Views: 935,613

Rating: 4.752018 out of 5

Keywords: Best, how, to, trex, build, install, tips, deck, remodel

Id: kLPIIwLDZUY

Length: 6min 2sec (362 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 20 2018