Installing a deck in an investment and will instantly raise the value of your home while providing extra living space on your property for an area to entertain and an area aesthetically pleasing way to raise the curb appeal of your home.
Decks offer a great way to enjoy the outdoors, make use of a backyard and reduce maintenance cost for landscaping.
Today, metal and pressure treated lumber are the two different major frame materials to consider using in Colorado with the latter slowly being replaced by metal frame systems.
We have learned over the past several years that the advantages of building a deck in Colorado using a metal frame, far outweighs the marginal additional upfront expense over using treated lumber. The desire for longevity with investing in outdoor living spaces on a deck is driving the trend and in time the metal ends up being way less expensive.
In Colorado the average wood deck lasts from 6 – 8 years because of UV rays, wood and organic material embedding between the boards along with moisture which all will cause wood rot. Furthermore the decomposition of the deck is accelerated by these factors for those of you who do not maintain your deck properly, which causes it to fail earlier than expected.
Once a deck has started to rot in the frame area, it is almost impossible to provide any fixes except to replace it. Just because your deck frame used pressure treated lumber, has no guarantee it will perform properly over time, even using composite decking boards.
There are several top tier national companies that have invested heavily into building entire new product lines of metal framing systems exclusively for residential decks. Fortress and Trex lead the industry and are trend setters. Metal deck framing will offer durability along with strength that wood deck frames cannot compete with. They are also more resilient to weather, moisture and impervious to bugs, not to mention the longevity everyone is asking for with their investment in their deck.
Be sure to only hire a licensed and insured contractor that specializes in metal decks before you move forward with your decision to build one.
