No, deck fighting is not a new martial art form. Deck fighting for me started with a plywood deck using ¾ inch exterior plywood. It took a few years for it to deteriorate, but I couldn’t keep paint on it, so it always had that needy look. I decided to replace it when a rather heavy friend of mine darn near broke his leg. You see there was a soft spot in one corner of the plywood and that is the exact spot my friend decided to stand. The top of my friend was above deck, but his leg up to the calf ended up below deck. Fortunately, I have good friends and didn’t get sued.

It was definitely time for a new deck, and unbeknownst to me, a new deck fight. I decided to be smart and install a cedar deck. I thought it would hold up well, after all it is cedar. That’s supposed to be anti-bug, anti-mold, anti-rot. Unfortunately, nobody told the cedar that, at least not here in the Seattle area. We get a lot of rain, not the downpour type, but the slow drizzly board rotting type.

After a considerable amount of time and a hefty chunk of change, the decks were done. I now had one small deck on the back of my house and a large deck in front and they were beautiful. I fell in love with my decks, they seemed to smile up at me with adoring loveliness, but it was all an ugly lie. Within two years the cedar planks tended to split, despite going through all the preservation hoops by staining them with one of the best wood preservative stains. You know the kind, think bankruptcy per gallon types. The deck planking still split and planks started to rot. My beautiful deck was turning into something akin to a bad blind date.

When I add the cost of the original deck including the time to install it and then add the high maintenance, my deck has become way too pricey. Even if I don’t consider the cost of materials, there’s that little thing called time that I always seem to be shy of. I pretty much blow a day’s time every two years in replacing boards and staining. I think I now have the most expensive deck on the west coast.

This year I’ve got to replace three more boards, two on the front deck where we get that warm afternoon sun and one on the back deck. As much as I love the look of cedar, I’d never do it again. At least not until my ship comes in and I can afford to hire a full time maintenance crew. We have acreage and there are a lot of chores besides the normal maintenance that goes with home ownership. Cedar just chews up too much time in maintenance for this do-it-your-selfer.

In contrast, on a second home we own, we installed Trex (no I don’t own any Trex stock). That stuff is holding up beautifully. I don’t like the look as well, but hey, I consider my time one of my most valuable assets. I’m thinking of replacing the floor of my deck with Trex’s Brasilia because it has a wood grain finish. I know there are other products out there and they may be just as good, but this is my choice. No more deck fighting, I’m way over it.