Julia and Dave Bodell must have good karma. How else to explain their great luck in being asked to build one of the most remarkable decks in their careers, a $250,000 multi-toned, multilevel Trex deck (www.trex.com) and arbor at the Los Angeles Arboretum?
Also known as the “Zen deck,” or the “yin and yang deck,” the Bodells' curvy creation took about 45 days to build at the end of 2005 and is a living testament to the fact that, yes, you can bend composite decking. “We're very proud of it,” says Julia Bodell, co-owner with her husband of The Wood Master, in Tustin, Calif.
To bend 20-foot lengths of Trex boards (the longest size available), the company built a makeshift cabinet with a 25,000 BTU forced-air heater at each end. Following specifications on the Trex Web site, the boards were heated to about 250° F before being lifted onto the deck foundation and blocked in place to cool. The foundation is traditional construction of pressure-treated wood, with the addition of 2x4 sleeper boards over the joists.
After the boards cooled completely, they were screwed from the bottom, through the sleepers, with 3-inch TrapEase deck screws (www.fastenmaster.com). The railing posts, which have metal cores to handle the tension of the cable railing system, were then also clad with Trex.
The largest part of the deck was made using Trex Accents in woodland brown. The yin-and-yang symbol was made with Trex's Brasilia product, using cayenne for the darker portion and burnished amber for the lighter part. The deck was an enormous amount of work and there was a large learning curve. Still, Julia Bodell says, “It was a really fun project.”
SMALL BUT SPECIALFor Meridian, Idaho, deck builder Jack Hanson, the biggest challenges aren't the biggest decks. Rather, Hanson, owner of Woodpile Construction, finds satisfaction in trying to fit all his clients' desires into relatively small decks.
In this deck (above), the clients wanted a dining area with an open feeling, a sitting area with benches, and a spa area with privacy and wind protection. For a not-so-big deck, Hanson says, “it accomplishes a lot.”
Hanson relies on level changes and varying the direction of the boards to define specific deck areas. This also helps him work with shorter spans to avoid butt joints, which are expensive to create and generally problematic. This deck features Aurora low-voltage lighting in the railing posts, a necessity when the deck is too far from the house, as this one is, for the home's exterior lights to provide much illumination. The redwood railing defines the dining area while preserving the open feeling, and the cedar privacy fence on two sides of the spa screens the space from the neighbors.
Hanson uses one of his favorite design techniques in this project: setting the spa at ground level to minimize its visual bulk.
As for the choice of decking, Hanson says that whenever he's designing to accommodate a water feature, such as a spa or pool, he always pushes the homeowners toward a composite material — usually LP WeatherBest (www.lpcorp.com). The product holds up better than wood finishes to water with a high chemical content, he says, and also has a better slip rating than wood. Plus, when your clients will be using the deck barefoot “you don't want to worry about splinters.”
DECK ARTISTRYGarth Hystad, owner of Colorado Custom Decks, considers himself an artist, and it's easy to see why. Each of his custom decks is a unique creation combining a pleasing pallet of low-maintenance materials with site-specific design features that capture the stunning vistas of the Rocky Mountains while offering protection from their volatile weather patterns. Even in winter, after a snowstorm, Hystad says that this lodge-like deck, which he built at his own home, is a wonderful place to be outdoors with his family, complete with glass walls blocking winds, infrared heaters overhead, music, and a crackling fire.
The lavish project (at left) displays some of Hystad's favorite products and features. The rock wall of the outdoor kitchen was created to blend with the rock exterior of a neighbor's house. The spa is nestled between the upper deck — providing easy access to the heated space — and the lower deck, which allows access to the spa panels for maintenance and repairs.
For nearly all his projects, Hystad prefers Fiberon decking (www.fiberondecking.com) — seen here in the mahogany color of the Tropics series — for several reasons. The blend of eight colors on each board creates a more realistic appearance, Hystad says. “It's absolutely gorgeous.” And the high-density polyethylene used in the product helps it resist staining and scratching. Plus, because many of Hystad's decks are a blend of covered and exposed spaces, as is this one, he likes the added UV protection offered by Fiberon so that the product is less likely to fade unevenly.
Color is introduced to the project with custom-made, powder-coated railings and posts. The green fascia on the steps is a patented system, which Hystad developed and makes available through Fiberon, that allows the product to expand and contract in the region's notorious weather extremes without tearing the deck apart.
Hystad used to mostly build $10,000 to $30,000 decks, but he eventually decided to focus on high-end decks in the $150,000 to $350,000 price range and do fewer projects. In his mind, these are not mere decks that he's just slapping onto the sides of houses. “I'm adding an architectural masterpiece,” he says.
BENT OUT OF SHAPEWhen deck and railing manufacturer Trex was casting about for a contractor to create this golf-themed deck in White Bear, Minn., it's no wonder the company called on Littleton, Colo., deck builder Doug Lind. His firm, Outdoor Escapes (www.outdoor-escapes.com), is so focused on building decks with curves that it created and now markets an $8,000 composite-bending machine (www.outscapebender.com).
Here's how it happened: Several years ago, Trex started running a dramatic magazine ad showing a curved deck jutting out over a cliff. Although the deck in the advertisement was just a photo of a model that was then superimposed onto the cliff image, it got Lind thinking: We have to try this.
Lind and his crew's initial attempts at curving Trex, using a tube and forced air to heat the boards, were a failure. “It wasn't pretty,” Lind says, recalling a slew of broken and wasted boards. They got only three boards bent properly in three days.
So the crew started tinkering and developed a system that softened the boards with hot water, which provided a more consistent heat. It was that system that they used on this golf deck, using Trex reddish Madeira-colored boards for the decking and Winchester gray for the trim. The boards, up to 20 feet long, were heated and then lifted and blocked into place to cool, then attached with trim head screws.
Trex suggests joist spans of no more than 12 inches for installing curved boards.
Since this deck was completed, Lind has further improved his composite-heating system with the use of radiant heat, which can get boards hotter than the water system, and which can now heat most types of composite boards, five at a time. According to Lind, once he had a few rounded decks in his portfolio and on his Web site, “it just took off,” and homeowners started requesting curved decks.
Of course, not all projects offer the benefits of this one. After the six-week job was done, Lind and his crew tested it out: “We sat there and teed off for about half a day,” he says. “That was a fun deck to build.” —Kathy Price-Robinson is a freelancer who writes about remodeling; www.kathyprice.com.