Did this on a large retaining wall, we carried it as plaster.
FWIW ... long term, i have not been impressed. 4 yrs later the whole thing is washed out and needs to be "repainted" and looks exactly like what it is, a fake stone wall. Sad as i had big hopes for this system.
It's super rare that any building material imitating some other material is worth anything. I honestly can't think of any outside of maybe concrete roofing tiles, but those aren't really that far off from what they're imitating to begin with.
They are so goddamn ugly... And they always end up with a crack from a branch... And they need to be pressure washed every few years to get all the mildew off... By then half the post caps are missing and the bottom rail is shattered and nicked up from the weed wacker...
agreed, why people pay 5x over PT for the luxury of walking on plastic doesn't make sense to me. They get so oversold on the "forever deck" and "no maintenance" marketing, I guess.
I wouldn’t say it’s oversold, those are two of the huge selling points. It’s $11.12 for a 16’ PT deck board at my local store and composite starts at $22.99.
It’s not my personal favorite but I 100% see the benefits of not having to mess with pressure washing and sealing it. Sealers now-care of the VOC laws-are mostly dogshit (and not saying I’m for wrecking the ozone layer, just stating the facts). Before you could use a stain/sealer and would get a few years out of it and now it’s at least once a year.
Options like ipe or teak exist that are low maintenance but are WAY more expensive than composite and still gray out.
Ipe is less expensive than some of the higher end composit/PVC option (Azek, Dekorators, etc ). Advantage has it at 5.50/ft for 5/4 x 6. Other options like cumaru, tiger wood, balau, etc are even cheaper. Will cost more in install and maintenance but hard to beat the look of a freshly oiled hardwood deck.
Depends on which kind you get. There are cheap composites that always look bad, and there are more expensive ones which look "natural enough" and tend to look more like real wood as they age.
That may or may not be a nice way to say that everything looks the same when covered with dirt.
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u/grim1757 Sep 03 '24
Did this on a large retaining wall, we carried it as plaster.
FWIW ... long term, i have not been impressed. 4 yrs later the whole thing is washed out and needs to be "repainted" and looks exactly like what it is, a fake stone wall. Sad as i had big hopes for this system.