Not the usual TREX deck question... proper water drainage

windowguy

Please do not let this thread turn into "my Trex deck is horrible" thread.

My question is about ensuring water runoff. After 7 years i have several series of decking that has lost its gap between the boards. Thus the water cannot drip through and based on what i've read about Trex the worst thing you can do it is let the water sit on it.

Either the decking has swelled over the years slightly, or shifted, but I have about a half dozen spots where 3 or 4 boards are butted side by side and no water can drop through).

Unscrewing the boards and respacing is not an option since the ones that are touching are in the middle of about a 25 board run.

I'm thinking about drilling some sort of drain holes here and there to allow water to drip down. Do you guys have any good or bad feedback on this?

I don't believe Trex is like TP wood where if you break the surface or cut it you compromise the integrity of it.

thanks..

Joe Carola

Can you unscrew them and run them through a table saw and rip them down or with a circular saw and saw guide and then sand the edges to match the rest and screw them back down? Or, belt sand them down?

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Joe Carola

windowguy

they would look horrible if i cut them, there's no way i could sand them down and have them look natural again. This is Trex, from what i've seen you can't sand them, the stuff sort of melts. If cutting them or sanding them is my only option i think i'd rather take the chance drilling a small hole here or there in it and replace the board a couple of years from now if i damaged it.

(but then of course the color fading won't match, but i don't think that is worse then a board not matching because i sanded it).