When it comes to come residential remodeling, few, if any of the trades can match the satisfaction of building decks and deck related projects such as gazebos or pergolas.

An outdoor deck on a home in Pittsburgh, with its hilly terrain, is often the primary outdoor living space for a family. It's always gratifying when the homeowner starts to get excited during the project. Everyone associates a deck with having fun and for the guys here at decksunlimited, installing them is no different.

However, when it comes to planning your deck project and selecting the appropriate materials involved, it really is a serious matter. With today's busy lifestyles, people are increasingly looking to build their projects with low maintenance products whether it is a deck, fence, or retaining wall. While the mid to long term financial return on low maintenance products is favorable, the initial investment is significant. You only get one chance to "get it right.”

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Selecting the appropriate building materials for a home improvement project always requires due diligence by the homeowner. This is true if it is a kitchen, bathroom, new roof or a deck. Versed in using all of the latest deck building materials, and with 25 years of experience installing deck related projects in the Pittsburgh area, decksunlimited is here to assist you determine what is best for you. Having seen first-hand the evolution of residential deck building over a relatively short period of time, our collective knowledge is here to help you make informed, intelligent decisions about what is appropriate for your individual project.

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When consulting with prospective clients, the goal, first and foremost, is to create a deck project well suited to their needs and budgets. Rather than create a deck that is perfect as we see it, the focus is always on the client. The key, as the axiom goes, is to allow form to follow function. Only after discussing our clients’ needs and intended uses can the project begin to take shape. It makes no sense to try to fit a size 9 shoe on a size 7 foot. While it is true that the majority of homeowners aren’t looking for a deck to be featured in a magazine, it is equally true that adding a few artistic touches such as a bench, plant rack, pergola or deck lighting can personalize a deck and really set it apart. This is where there is creative separation of decksunlimited from other deck installers. Versed in using all of the leading decking brands, we usually incorporate a variety of disparate manufacturers and material types in all of our projects. This allows us to design a deck project that is truly unique to you. No one in your neighborhood will have a deck that looks like yours, even if decksunlimited built them all !!!

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Having established the scope of the project (size and basic features), the conversation logically turns to building material options. For the first 12 years that I built decks, this conversation didn’t exist. Everything was constructed of pressure treated lumber. With the arrival of composite (see below) decking products in 2000, the deck building market began to evolve. Initially skeptical of the cost and performance of this new manmade building material, public acceptance has increasingly grown over the years. Parallel to this growth has been an increase not only in the type of low maintenance decking materials commercially available, but also in the breadth of accessory decking products available to the consumer. Today there are over 2000 low maintenance deck manufacturers in the U. S. Trying to keep up with all of this change is daunting enough for someone who earns their livelihood building decks, let alone someone trying to research a onetime home improvement product. The inherent problem beyond the number of choices is the attributes that each type of decking material possesses. At this point it is important to note that no one particular genre of deck material is perfect. While the low maintenance products implicitly have the common characteristics of being rot, decay, split or warp resistant, each has its own strengths and weaknesses.

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Often times the selection of the material best suited for a particular project depends upon prevailing conditions. This includes, but is not limited to: sun exposure (or lack of), water/dampness issues, or proximity to vegetation. It is also true that sometimes decisions can, and are, based solely on color alone.

Today your primary material choices when it comes to decks are, in no particular order:

  • Pressure treated lumber
  • Composite materials
  • PVC plastic
  • Vinyl
  • Western red cedar
  • Aluminum
  • HDPE plastic
  • Brazilian hardwoods
  • Bamboo