My new composite deck boards from last spring are already warping in spots, and the installer says it's normal settling. I say it's a bad batch.

4 comments

4 Comments

What does normal settling even look like on a composite deck? I had a board on my old deck do something similar, and it turned out the joists weren't spaced right. The installer just wanted to avoid coming back out. It's probably not a bad batch, more like a bad install job they don't want to fix. My own deck was such a mess I ended up using the warped board as a weird garden border.

the_jana2mo ago

Check the warranty paperwork, @sandraf98. Might force their hand.

karen_sanchez491mo ago

Sandraf98 is spot on about the joist spacing thing. Once you see the sag pattern line up with where the joists are missing, it's pretty obvious what's really going on. Bet if they measured the gaps they'd find a few spots way over what the decking manufacturer says is okay.

sandraf982mo ago

Yeah, the "bad batch" excuse is such a classic way for a bad installer to dodge the blame. You're right on the money with the joist spacing. If they went wider than what the decking maker says, you're going to get that bounce and sag, and no amount of "settling" fixes a frame that's wrong from the start. My neighbor had the same runaround until he checked and found the joists were a full six inches too far apart in spots. It's never the product, it's always the person who didn't follow the basic instructions. They hope you'll just live with it.