Which Composite Decking is best?

Composite decking is a hybrid product made up of recycled wood and plastic. Composite decking offers a long-lasting alternative to traditional timber decking and has many advantages. There are many different types of composite decking on the market at a range of price points but how do you know which composite decking is best? As with many building products cheapest is not always best and the well known phrase you get what you pay for is often the case with lots of building and landscaping materials. When researching composite decking and deciding which best suits your scheme and budget there are several things to look out for. BALI Registered Affiliate member SAiGE Longlife Decking offer advice on best practice on sourcing composite decking.

Budget and Colour

Firstly, what is your budget and what style and colour decking are you looking for. Quality composite decking like SAiGE is more expensive than traditional timber but with an expected life span of over 20 years you are not going to need to replace it as quickly as timber decking. SAiGE also have a variety of colours and styles available.

Anti-Slip and Strength Testing

Start by looking at the test data for the composite decking boards to see how they perform in terms of strength, ant- slip properties. You will find many composite decking boards that have very low anti slip test results and strength ratings. SAiGE composite decking boards are one of the market leaders in terms of tensile strength and anti- slip test results. Check out our Test documents.

How recycled materials affect the aesthetics and function

SAiGE composite boards are made up of 50% recycled wood fibres and 45% recycled plastic adding to their excellent strength and low water absorption rates. Many boards with a higher proportion of wood fibres or those that haven’t been mixed properly during manufacture will often have white wood flecks running through them. The higher the percentage of wood the higher the water absorption rate causing the boards to be less long lasting and increasing the possibility of rotting. On the other hand boards which have a high percentage of plastic content can often look quite man-made and shiny looking very different to traditional timber decking. SAiGE decking boards have a brushed finish on both sides of the boards to take off the shiny plastic effect resulting in a much higher quality finish.

Quality

SAiGE maintain an extremely high level of quality across all products. The composite decking boards are 100% quality inspected so you can be sure you’re receiving the very best quality products.

Fixings

SAiGE provide powder coated aluminium fixings for the hollow decking boards. The black powder coating means they are not visible through the gaps in the decking. Also they will not rust. The aluminium clip system leaves approximately a 2mm gap between the boards along the length. Other composite decking brands sometimes use plastic T bracket fixings. These leave a much larger gap of approximately 5mm, are visible between the boards and can get brittle over time and break.

SAiGE Solid boards are fixed with colour coded screws which match the decking providing a discrete fixings. They will not rust. SAiGE will also quote for the relevant fixings required to install the decking and you will not get any extra surprise costs when placing an order.