Composite Decking vs Wood and Extreme Weather

Using wood to create a suitable decking for your garden is all well and good when you take into account it’s natural beauty, however, pushing past its difficulty to maintain and it’s extortionate cost, wood is far more inferior to weathering than composite decking. While both wood and composite decking can retain large amounts of heat, using wood to create decking would put you at risk of your decking cracking, splitting or even changing colour on a hot summers day. There is a reason why weatherproof composite decking is the leading choice for decking and why it has become so customary across gardens in the UK over the past years.

Using wood decking in the UK can be very demanding as maintaining and applying coats of protection to wood can be time consuming and frustrating, especially living in a country that rains as much as we do! Without treating your wood decking, water can become quickly trapped within cracks and joints which can freeze with low temperatures and expand causing the wood to crack, in addition to this, water can also cause mold to grow beneath the surface which could eventually overtime could cause the decking to smell. Composite decking materials can tackle rain whilst avoiding moisture being absorbed as it is made from wood fibers and two types of polypropylene whilst also disregarding any toxic chemicals or preservatives. Making it a weatherproof decking alternative.

Alongside being extremely weather resistant, composite capped decking costs less over its lifetime than wood does, (taking into account maintenance costs) and requires less time to be spent each year maintaining the material, the time spent on wood decking per year is 16-32 hours and only 2-4 hours per year for composite decking. Furthermore, composite capped weatherproof decking is far safer than wood as it is slip resistant and splinter-free making it a safer option for pets and children.