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Story of a Homeowner's Deck
Across the country there is a silent and virtually invisible Deck Killer destroying decks in just a few years from installation. This is the story of one such deck that nearly cost the homeowner $40,000 to save it… and could have resulted in a dangerous fall.
"Deck Rot Almost Cost Me $40,000!"
This is an all to common story of what is happening from one side of the country to the other. Ever since the government forced the pressure treatment companies to remove the arsenic from the pressure treated wood (which may have been a good idea) but failed to give them sufficient time to research, find and test the alternative, the result has been a surging and accelerating number of unexpected, dangerous and expensive deck failures.
Customer paid $25,000, 10 years ago: It seems to be holding up well, at least what you can see is holding up. It is what you cannot easily see that is creating a vulnerable and hazardous situation...
These failures could and should have been prevented and they are causing a national financial loss estimated in the millions. Worse, serious physical injuries are being suffered by those who were caught in these collapses. On this page the first three deck photos show a large and beautiful Trex composite deck with composite railing that cost $25,000 just ten years ago.
Nothing wrong with this Trex decking.
"We spent a LOT of money for this Trex decking. Is it all a big waste now?"
The homeowner thought their new deck would last many, many years. It should have. They never suspected that the pressure treated framing, the substructure floor joists that support their new Trex deck, would rot out in just a few years. "What the h___?!?! I thought pressure treated wood was supposed to last like forever!" It should! And it actually did at one time... until the feds made the pressure treatment facilities take the arsenic out of the pressure treatment chemicals.
The floor joist shown to the right is one of twelve (12) pressure treated floor joists that were so decayed from fungus that we could actually shove an ice pick completely through them. We replaced them before someone fell through the deck and broke their neck.
Then the homeowners were confronted with a difficult decision.
"You are telling me to tear it all down and rebuild?
How much will
that
cost? And are we supposed to use the same defective pressure treated wood that caused this disaster?? You cannot be serious! Honestly, this just makes me plain, downright furious!"
What do you think local contractors told them to do? The deck was failing.
It was dangerous. Frankly, the homeowners were scared and they were vulnerable
to what contractors told them. BTW, the above photo is not from the Trex deck that we
worked on. It is from a different deck but one that perfectly illustrates the problems that
fungus causes in all decks as it consumes wood cellulose by secreting an enzyme which
converts wood cellulose to wood sugar. This is the process we call rotting wood. It starts
as soon as you see green or black on the wood. In some cases, the brand new pressure treated framing is delivered to the homeowner with these green and black telltale signs of fungus all over the wood. Trex states that PT decks are in
"advanced
stages of rot in as early as 7-9 years from installation."
(emphasis mine)