[oliver007]

Good morning. I constructed a 300 square foot deck 3 years ago using Trex decking. My helpers?!?! who I thought had built decks before left me with a couple of problems. They did not gap the boards and did not clean up the edges so now I have heaving and cupping of the deck boards. My questions are, can I reuse the warped boards or do I have to replace them and since I am taking ALL the deck boards off should I give them a clean edge or is it to late for that?
Thanks
Rick

 

[Windows on Wash]

For 300 sq/ft, I wouldn't risk it. It will never look right.

 

[P C D]

Trex boards come with rounded edges. What do you mean by "cleaning up the edges"? Sanding and rounding the butt ends? Typically you would run a rim board to cover the boards' butt ends and form a finished deck edge.


After you remove your boards, I would take the most-warped one and try to screw it back before buying new boards. If the new screws remove the warp, there is no practical reason why not to reuse them.

 

[oliver007]

Trex boards come with rounded edges. What do you mean by "cleaning up the edges"? Sanding and rounding the butt ends? Typically you would run a rim board to cover the boards' butt ends and form a finished deck edge.


After you remove your boards, I would take the most-warped one and try to screw it back before buying new boards. If the new screws remove the warp, there is no practical reason why not to reuse them.

Thanks for your reply. According to the instructions, which we should have read, they say to cut 3/8" off of each end because the boards are not perfectly flat. I was wondering since they have been down that long, should I bother with that?

 

[P C D]

Thanks for your reply. According to the instructions, which we should have read, they say to cut 3/8" off of each end because the boards are not perfectly flat. I was wondering since they have been down that long, should I bother with that?

That is called "squaring off the ends." Typically you would let those rough-cut ends run a bit long, and then cut them all at once with the boards in place; squaring the ends and having all the ends line up in the same cut.

 

[Photobug]

That is called "squaring off the ends." Typically you would let those rough-cut ends run a bit long, and then cut them all at once with the boards in place; squaring the ends and having all the ends line up in the same cut.

As PCD said, squaring off the ends is a deck building thing. It is not particular to Trex decking. The lack of squaring off the ends is not why your decking is giving you problems. It is probably the lack of gaps in the original install.

 

[chandler48]

The last one we did involved Trex with grooves and clips. It made for absolutely uniform spacing and quick installation without screw boogers on the top of the material. One thing we did was on the outer board was to cut it 1" longer in width than the deck, then use a round over router bit to the edges, then stain the edge to match the surface. It took away the groove from eyesight.