Resurfacing Deck with Trex Composite Decking

In regards to the size and structure of the deck, it is forty two feet long and extends outward from the house sixteen feet, with tapered ends and steps coming off three directions of it. The deck only sits a couple of feet off of the ground so there are is no deck railing system.

The deck is a floating deck, meaning, it is not attached to the home, which I am very thankful for. Decks that are attached to a home often lead to water damage problems. This deck’s framing structure (pressure treated beams and floor joists) sits on a network of concrete pillars that are sunk down into the ground nearly four feet, well below the frost line. Thus, after nearly 17 years the deck sits relatively level. There were a couple of areas of the deck where shims had slipped off between the deck posts and beams, but other than replacing the shims, that was all that was required in re-leveling the deck.

I chose to contract out the work in resurfacing the deck due to its larger size and my personal time constraints. I obtained three quotes from local contractors. The quotes ranged from $9,000 to $12,000. I accepted a quote that came in around $10,000. I chose this particular quote mainly because of how thorough the quote was and how knowledgeable the contractor was in tackling this project. He spent nearly an hour with me on-site, examining the deck and offering ideas on how we could resurface the deck. Suffice it to say, there was no ambiguity with him on what I was going to get for a completely resurfaced deck. In addition, he guaranteed he would have the work completed in three weeks.

Of particular interest to me in this contractor’s proposal was his recommendation to breadboard the perimeter of the deck, and sections of it in the middle, for aesthetic, functional and cost reasons. From the jobsite pictures shown on this page, you can see the bread-boarding finished deck surface.

Also, one of the big concerns for me was the state of the deck floor joists and beams. We really could not see them that well to inspect them. The other contractors had left the door open in their quotes for having to fix them. They did this instead of taking a close look at the deck on-site when they came out to review the deck and to generate the quote. One even said he wanted to charge by the hour for our project. I quickly tossed his quote in the trash. The contractor I chose, however, took the extra time and effort to inspect the deck structure while he visited the jobsite. Thus, he was able to assure me that there would be no upside chargers for replacing any of the deck structure, and stated so in the quotation. His quote also spelled out who was removing the old decking boards from the jobsite, what specific grade of Trex material would be used, e.g. Trex Select, and what fasteners would be used (e.g. hidden fasteners).

The contractor and his crew ended up doing a fantastic job and acted professional the entire time on site. I could not have been more pleased with the quality of their work and their behavior on this jobsite. Thus I would highly recommend the contractor and his team. The contractor’s name is Larry Cotter and his company is called The Lacewood Group, and they are located in Moultonborough, New Hampshire. Here is his company’s website, http://www.lacewood.com/.