hello everyone i'm shane chapman from The Ultimate
Deck Shop and on today's edition of deck shop shorts
we're talking about the budget deck board options from the three major brands of composite decking
now if you've been doing any research about composite decking the names you're probably coming
across are likely trex timbertech and fibron those three are big players in the market and they all
have options at every budget price point whether you're looking to spend a little or spend a lot
but today we're going to focus on just spending a little because that's a big market of people
looking to go from wood to composite without breaking the bank and luckily for everybody
out there both all three of these brands have an entry level board that are really quite good
for your money so we're gonna start we're gonna go through these gonna tell you the goods and maybe a
bad about each product and that way you know what you need to know before making a decision now trex
is the number one brand that you're familiar with you've heard of them if you've heard of anybody
this is their entry into that market it's called trex enhance basics and so there's actually a a
really entry level and then a prettier version of the entry level from all three of these so we're
gonna show them all but this is the enhanced basics it's available in three colors and this
is the gray entry into that line but what you're going to find with all three of those colors is a
solid color there's no variegation running through it the embossing is a pretty nice embossing to it
it is scalloped so you do have some of that material removed out of the back you're going
to find that from all three of the boards we're talking about today they all do it a little bit
differently this is how trex does it a bunch of little fingers a little bit of material removed
doesn't really affect the structural integrity of the board you're still fine installing it on 16
inch centers so nothing to worry about there what this does mean though is that you don't have the
option of using a plug system with tracks you have to go to their higher end boards to be able to use
the hidden plug system from cortex or proplug so know that but very good board very protractive
price point it's actually the lowest cost of the three we're going to talk about today um on the
flat colors the only knock i would say against it because we're going to give a knock on each one
if you're looking for durability to scratching this is probably the weakest entry of the three
it will scratch a little bit easier that said we have displays this in our showroom that gets
thousands of feet walking across it it still looks brand new it's not scratching up but
if you have really big obnoxious dogs or if you know if you're gonna be a little bit more rough
on your deck this may scratch a little bit before the other options do but like i said it's still
pretty darn durable you get 25 year warranty out of this the same as their higher end lines
against structural and staining and fading so you still get the full coverage no matter what now
if you want to go up to their prettier stuff the same profile this is called the enhanced
naturals from trex you're still gonna get the same warranty now you're getting the colored
streaking this is available in five colors so you have a few more options here beautiful coloring
through this you used to have to go to trex's high-end board to get the coloring now you don't
the naturals line is going to give this to you this is foggy wharf this one has been on
fire along with rocky harbor which is so good these colors are so good if you're
looking for a beautiful board budget price point enhanced naturals is a great option
now i mentioned that these scratch a little bit easier on this stuff because there's a lot of
action happening with the color it's going to hide any little imperfections you might get on
your deck over the years so nice distraction from the eyes to any potential scratching you might get
that's pretty good now timbertech came out with their edge line around the same time same year
and the edge line also comes in depends on the market you might find four colors you might find
two colors if you're in u.s or canada but what they've got here is a very durable board so i
mentioned before that the scratching might be an issue with in certain scenarios with tracks the
timbertech edge actually rates out the best of the three as far as durability so if you're looking
for durability this is one that's going to hold up very well um in canada you're going to find two
colors this light gray and then a brown option and the stage you'll get two additional colors
it's uh it is scalloped here there is a version of this board that is not scalloped as well which
is mostly available in the states but this is a great option for durability looks nice the
knock against this i would say is that it's not a super attractive embossing it's very hairline
and so when you've just got a solid color it may to some people look a little bit bland not a lot
going on there so if you're looking for a little bit something more colorful the next option might
be better for you but as i mentioned they do have boards with the coloring in it they always cost
a little bit more but it's still in the edge line this one's awesome there's two colors in this line
now even though you still have that same linear embossing that's not super exciting the coloring
makes this pop now now it's a very nice looking board so i really like this line timbertech edge
is great great warranty on these as well and uh stain fade warranty and everything too so
next on fibron now fibron's good lifeline is what they call their entry level line i would
go back to timbertech plugs also not available for the timbertech line but plugs are available
for the fiber on good lifeline that's one good pro in their favor it has a nice deep embossing
i personally like the look of this embossing some people think it's a little bit too deep
it's the eye of the beholder you might like it you might not two colors available in the good life
weekender line that you're going to get just solid color scalloping on the back again a
little bit differently but very good board the durability of this as far as scratching is pretty
good not as good as the edge but maybe a little bit better than the trex and then of course you
can go up to there's a three color option to get the variegated uh lines here as well and so now
you get a bit of that streaking in it the knock on this i would say is that the streaking isn't
super realistic it kind of comes in blotches every once in a while you get a big dark patch
and then it kind of goes away and then it comes again i would say the streaking from timbertech
and trex are both nicer looking a little bit more realistic but this is still very nice just not as
realistic as the others but as far as durability and decent traction on this one as well i think
this is a really good bang for your buck it's going to be priced a little bit under the colored
variegated boards from trex and timbertech at least in our market it is whereas the solid color
one is about the same as timbertech and a little bit higher than trex so all three of these this
also gives you the warranty of 25 years on the on the basic one and 30 years on the very good one so
um and 30 years on your timbertech one as well so great warranties across the board from all three
brands you're gonna get covered for a long time on staining on fading and unstructural so no concerns
there they're all great options honestly go to the stores have a look at them see what colors work
for you because they're all a little bit different if you're looking for a darker gray well trex is
going to give it for you the other guys don't if you're looking for a lighter brown you're going
to find that like almost a yellowy brown from timbertech and maybe a little bit from fibrom but
you know trex hasn't just look at all the colors see what's going to work for you they're all
fantastic if you need any questions answered about the differences between that we didn't discuss
here shoot us a message in the comments we'll be sure to answer but honestly if you're looking to
save a few bucks on a composite deck choose one of these guys don't go to the box store and buy the
crap that you don't know where it came from it's garbage yes it's a little bit cheaper than this we
see it every day that people come back with that stuff failing or marking up or just not not good
products if you don't recognize the brand double check ask somebody ask us in the comments there's
a lot of crap brands out there that you can get for next to nothing but you're going to pay for
in the long run i would say the price points on these are close enough to those those kind of crap
boards anyway it's going to cost a little bit more but you're actually going to get a product that
has a company behind it and a warranty so stick with these great options shoot us some messages
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