Essex Decking & Fencing
Professional Landscaping Services in Essex since 2011
Composite Decking Specialist
Timber Decking Specialist
Fencing Specialist
Artificial & Real Grass Specialist
Pergolas Designed & Built
Commercial Projects
Composite Decking in Essex
Tough - Durable - Attractive - Environmentally Friendly - Long Warranty - Easy to Maintain
The First Choice for Composite Deck Builders in Essex
Essex Decking and Fencing has been designing and installing decking since 2011, which means we were one of the first companies in the U.K to adopt, work with, understand and see the benefits of good quality composite decking as a superior building material.
As with any new product innovation, it didn't take too long for the cheaper, poorer quality products to find their way into the market in an attempt to 'cash in' on the success of composite. We have been in the fortunate position to test and evaluate dozens of brands all claiming to be top quality product. Sadly this is not the case. Cheap composite decking is still prone to splitting and warping and fading, especially if fitted incorrectly by companies with experience only in installing timber decking.
If you type "buy composite decking Essex" into Google you will be flooded with pages and pages of results all looking pretty much the same and all offering long warranties (10-25 years). What we fail to understand is how companies solely set up to import shipping containers from abroad and sell them cheaply straight to market will be around in 25 years to honour such warranty.
To this end we decided to partner with only the best quality and long established decking manufacturers/brands available in the UK. with the pedigree, brand strength and customer support capabilities that we want our customers to benefit from.
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Is Composite Decking actually worth the extra investement?
Quality brands of Composite decking take the best qualities of wood and plastic. Using hardwood flour offers the superior strength over softwood flour, although coming in at a slightly higher cost (which separates the best and poorer quality, cheaper brands). This combined with a high-density plastic (derived from materials such as recycled bottles and bottle tops and NOT carrier bags as the cheap ones are) makes composite decking stronger than hardwood! Composite decking and fencing are popular because of their outstanding reliability, durability and finish. The wood flour element of the production process ensures that customers are provided with all the beauty of a natural wood grain appearance though without any of the maintenance and upkeep dependencies that come attached to traditional timber decking. In some cases, with brands such as Composite Prime, for every square metre of Composite Decking laid, you'd be saving around 3000 plastic milk bottles/tops from landfill!
Plus...You will never get a timber merchant guaranteeing wood for 25 years.
So the answer to this question is undoubtedly yes!
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Why is it best to use an installer that has proven extensive experience in installing Composite Decking?
Unfortunately we can answer this from experience. More and more frequently we are being called to replace or repair composite decks (even quality brands) due to inexperienced fitting.
Composite deck fitting comes with its own set of specific skills, tools and know how. Quite often when we are faced with a composite deck that has problems, we are told that "our builders did it when they built the extension" or " we used the same company that fitted our friend's/relative's timber deck".
Whilst we are in no way being disrespectful to the many trade firms who are skilled in their own fields, unless you are used to working with a particular product, it's possible to make costly mistakes through inexperience of using that material.
For example, we visted a family with young children recently that wasn't happy with some aspects of their composite decking fitted by another company. Whilst structurally sound, the installer had mitre cut (cutting at an angle) several composite deck boards along the edges of their steps. Even though it looked a neat finish, the result was a razor sharp edge along the front of the steps.
And in another case, we visted a couple with a one year old composite deck where most of the deck boards had come free of their fixings. This was due to the incorrect spacing of the deck joists for which composite decking has minimum parameters.