I don’t know about you, but we love a good deck. We spent ages looking at our options for the actual decking and while we love the look of hardwoods, we realised pretty quickly that we’d be paying a premium for a timber that would silver off and bleed in no time at all. Rendering it to a homogenous look shared with even cheaper pine options and it would be considerably shabby compared to the house.
We’d heard about composite decking, but were a tad skeptical about ‘fake’ timber until we found innovative kiwi company Outdure and their brand new range of 50% recycled plastic/50% recycled timber decking called ResortDeck. It looks seriously natural, comes in five diverse colours that are full of texture and no two boards are the same.
But the biggest reason we went for it in the end was the fact it’s fade resistant, so will look the same as it does today, in 10 year time. Meaning we can spend our time enjoying our decks rather than maintaining them. Plus it is slip resistant and won’t splinter. Genius I reckon. The ResortDeck is a new generation composite, only released this year and is superior to its predecessors, alleviating a lot of the prior known issues around movement/expansion/contraction.
Our builder Garrick laid the deck behind our master bedroom on Saturday and thanks to the innovative quick-clip system (no screwing off needed) he’d finished in about 4 hours, which is so, so much faster than using timber where each board needs to be pre-drilled and screwed off every 400mm.
We’re so stoked with how it’s come up. It looks incredibly natural, so much so that it was mistaken as a hardwood deck in the valuation report we had to get done for the bank!
On the outside the ResortDeck composite boards look exactly like hardwood, but inside it’s completely different. We chose the Havana colour.
The deck is fixed to the joists with little plastic clips. Doing away with the need to screw each board off at 400mm centres, saving significant time in laying it.
It took Garrick about 4 hours to finish the deck behind our master bedroom, even in the pouring rain – legend. The deck is approx 15sqm.
Kylie’s pretty happy with the finished deck, especially how well it ties in with the cedar cladding and blends in with the bush.
Beautiful. Each board comes in 4.8m lengths and is 138mm wide. Significantly reducing waste. Plus the fact it’s fade resistant and splinter free, makes for the ultimate, maintenance free deck. Can’t wait to get it on our roof top deck and behind the living pod.
Hi,
Are you still happy with Outdure decking ?
We are going to install 160 sqm of the resort deck and I have seen that sometimes we can have space between planks in winter time. Can you confirm ? It costs a lot of money so I would like to be sure we found the good product…especially because we are looking now for others areas to be covered. Did you notice a change of the color too ? Help ? Advice ?
Hi Valentina. Yes, we love it. Nearly 5 years now and it’s pretty close to brand new looking. We actually extended a deck about 2 years ago and you could not tell the difference between the new boards and the older ones. There are no splinters and the maintenance is super low key – you can leave as is, or give it a quick wash every spring to clean off the dirt, which brings it back to new. We have very minimal expansion/contraction – certainly no more so than timber which expands/contracts and warps significantly anyway. We laid our decks in a way to get boards in a full run, so no joins mid deck, which I would advise, as that would potentially be where you would notice some gaps opening/closing depending on the temp. Outdure will help you design your deck layout to achieve this. Hope that helps, but feel free to fire any more questions our way. Cheers, Ben.
Hi, I am looking at the resortdeck product, and notice on the sample boards there is fine fibre that gives the board a prickly look , does this disappear over time or get worse? or is there are way of bringing the board back to its original state, to a more smooth finish?
Hi Drage. I know what you mean, there can be a fine fibre, which is no different to a timber board, however it’s not prickly and you have no splinters to deal with. Not to mention no staining! Our boards are as good as new after 6 years of pretty heavy use and sun exposure. But if we had timber the decks would look significantly older. If we built again we would use Outdure again for sure, no questions. Hope that helps!
Hi Ben,
We’re putting in a pool and doing a large deck around it. I’ve done a fair bit of research on decking options which has led me to Outdure ResortDeck. The product looks fantastic and I’m just about sold on it (for the reasons you chose it). My only reservation is I’ve read that composite decking can get very hot underfoot. I’ve seen a couple of posts saying that in the height of summer composite decking can get too hot to walk on. We have a couple of little girls so a deck that’s too hot to walk on isn’t something that will work for us. I wondered if you wouldn’t mind sharing your experience of how hot ResortDeck gets in the height of summer?
Thanks Curtis
Hey Curtis. Yeah, it does get very hot in summer. We have had two kids since building and while it’s still pretty hot as an adult, it’s too hot to walk on for them in bare feet, definitely needs shade over it to stop that happening. Hope that helps. Cheers, Ben.
Hi Ben,
We’re looking at installing the sea salt outdure around our pool. My biggest concern at present is I have heard it can get scratched. In your experience has that happened on your deck when you’ve moved furniture around for example, or a heavy bbq?
Thanks,
Mel
Hey Mel, yes have had a few scratches such as moving a bbq around, but not with the likes of deck chairs. But I’d so no more so than normal timber marks/dents. Depending on the types of chair feet, you’ll find furniture can slip more than on timber, something to think about. It also heats up more than timber, something to think about if you’ve got little kids especially. But overall I can’t speak more highly of it – 8 years on still looks brand new, no splinters and minimal to no maintenance.
Hope that helps!
Thanks Ben, we’re a bit worried about it only having a 10 year warranty too (especially as from 6-10 years, they require 50% repair payment from customer). Have you had to go back to them at all in anything?
Other composite companies have a 25 year warranty.
Cheers,
Mel
Hi Mel, sorry I missed your reply. No, have had no issues at all.
Hi Mel and Ben,
We are looking at installing this product around a pool. I’d like to install it with the the smoother side facing up as it looks a lot nicer – but do you find it slippery at all when wet?
Thanks heaps!
Hi Kilo
I’d highly recommend against that. Yes, it would be very slippery smooth side up. The ‘normal’ side up is not slippery and in my opinion looks great and natural, with its grain. However when laying the deck, many times slipped on the boards when up the other way. Hope that helps.