Used the new Correct Deck CX-personal review - Contractor Talk - Professional Construction and Remodeling Forum

IHI · 07-28-2006, 07:42 AM

Had a customer that wanted to try the new CD CX (latest version of Correct Deck with integrated hidden fastner system) This is the first composite decking we've installed (typical budget restraints keep us with treated or cedar) and I must say I'm very impressed with this CD product.

I ordered the fastner system with the screws already started in them so all we had to do was tap them into the factory made groove along side the deck board with a regualr hammer, once they were "locked" into that piece we then slid the next board upto the fastners and used rubber dead blow hammers to tap the next course into place and then screwd down the hidden fastner screw until it was just buried in the plastic spacer/retention block, then repated for each course there after. I LOVE the fact these hidden fastner block completely cover the face of the joists so you literally see no wood what so ever when looking down through the engineered 1/8" spaces between deck boards. The deck surface left behind is simply beuatiful without all the screw holes left behind with typical installation methods and all the boards were perfectly uniform so once we had our first course set in place each 20' board snapped in like clock work and is straight as a string each course there after.

This is very heavy lumber that straight cuts VERY easy with the 40T 12" blade I had in the chop saw and 24T blade in the skill saw, none of the edges frayed or burred. The only problem I had was when notching for posts with the jig saw I wished I had a courser jig saw blade as the coursest one I had on hand seemed to literally melt it's way through the boards and ball up the material....much like cutting plastic. The product IMO almost acted like a really hard plastic/wax product. The one thing we did have troubles with was useing the stainless trim screws, if trying to run them into non pre-drilled boards when the head of the trim screw would break the board surface it wouldpush up the deck board material forming a raised crater around where the screw head had sunk...almost looked like a volcano for a visual. I tried pre-drilling and while this helped cut down on screws snapping off it did not prevent the board from pushing up little volcano's around the screw

One really cool thing was when making the stairs this CX has a nice tight bullnose edge so notch out the section under the notch to the thickness of the riser so once everything was in place the top edge of the riser was covered with this nice tight factory bullnose edge, it really turned out nice for asthetics over standard stairs.

Would love to post pictures, but I ran 3 boards short, (actually 2 full pieces and a filler) so they dont come in until next Wed, once it's all done I will post a pic of it, nothing fancy design wise just your standard rectangle, but it was a great opportunity to use a new product and learn from it. The next time I use CD CX I will picture frame the perimeter of the top of the deck, this way I can notch out the edge of the decking to go over the rim joist just like our stairs for a very nice look and then fill in between with standard deck prcatices.

Time wise, naturally it took longer since this was new to us but compared to the run of the mill deck installations it is a little more tedious. I did not want to get on the installed decking when installing the fasnters since all the rain left us a big mud hole and I did'nt want to get the stuff full fo mud with my 10lb shoes so I jumped joists all day which slowed us down. But for overall appearence the little extra work with the hidden fastner system is WELL worth the effort since the results speak for themselves!!

RobertCDF · 07-30-2006, 01:28 PM

See.... Now you know why I have been raving like a lunatic about how great correct deck is.

The SS screws you used, did they have a reverse threading at the top? That always helps to take away the dimple.

IHI · 07-30-2006, 07:10 PM

Yeah, the only SS trim screws we have at the ma and pa store have the reverse threads just below the head..kinda made it trickey when we tore the stairs back apart to redo since they bite in so well LOL!! I was hoping they'd drive in like they do in wood, just a nice head sized hole with screw below surface, but EVERYONE mushroomed the CD material up and out, I was thinking as a last resort using a hsarp chiesel to knock it down, but we re did them so it was a non-issue. Therw will be exposed screws though when I place the last board so I'll have to figure something out as I dont want it to look unsitely

Either way it's definatly I product I'll use on my own home in the near future to replace the delopitating POS we currently have, just trying to figure out how artsey I wnna go with it since I plan to add on in the next couple years so it'll all be torn out anyways, I hate to make it plain jane since I use things around my place as a working showroom for curious customers, but also dont wannt have hundreds/thousands wrapped up in cool factors to only throw it in the landfill in the future.

maj · 07-30-2006, 08:59 PM

Why not just mash 'em down with a hammer like all the other composites?

Is CD not a composite?

IHI · 07-30-2006, 10:17 PM

I suppose I could try that, always hate beating on surfaces though since my luck I'd dent the darn thing and at $54/ea it would'nt make me very happy LOL!! Soon as the stuff comes in Wed and we get back there I'll take a scrap peice and see how the blunt force trama works vs shaving it off with a chisel. This is some weird material to say the least!! But in a good way as far as visual appeal and durability goes.

Oregon_Rob · 08-02-2006, 11:37 PM

We are working on our 4th correct Deck Project and love the stuff.

C.C.R. · 03-02-2008, 12:36 AM

Correct deck rules. I don't think I'll ever use anything else.

Go on there site and order yourself a sample case. They give you a sample of every color and of the railing in white in a briefcase type case. Customers go eeewwww,aaaaahhhhh... sign on the dotted line...

MartyCD · 03-03-2008, 01:45 PM

Thanks for the positive posts, it is nice to hear, we spent a lot of time and effort developing CX.
Obviously this is an older thread so I can't help Josh on that job, but we do have a partnership with Headcote so we can offer the SmartBit together with colored heads that match our decking. That is what I recommend to prevent mushrooming. These are available at our company store on our website.
Marty

IHI · 03-03-2008, 04:01 PM

Marty, I'll have to check your sight and look into these color coded screws and the sample pack, I've got samples from my new supplier on a key chain, but have nothing for railings, so we've been using Quick Rail as we've had excellent results/durability, and they go together easily as compaared to some of the other PVC/Composites we've had the ill fate of trying

I've been using the correct deck CX whenever possible (customer budget is always the deciding factor), and have been very happy with it as are the customers, so it's definately a product i am estatic to have tried yrs ago, i just wish we could work with it more, but by the time it goes through all the hands and i see my price, it can get pretty hairey LOL!! I've since found a vendor that has gotten me alot better pricing, but when there is an issue, it takes them a bit to resolve it-like missing boards/hardware on an order-but the prices are alot better and that is why i've been able to sell more of it.

Here's the original deck we did when i asked in this post yrs ago LOL!! nothing fancy, but a nice functional, low maintenance deck. Customers were very pleased with the results even though we had to completely redo the entier base...they were hoping a "re-skin" was all that was needed, but base was waay underbuilt, so it turned into more work, but it is nice; thouogh simple

RobertCDF · 03-04-2008, 12:44 AM

Hey Josh, nice to see you back here... you should hang out more often

still cant get over that green... I have never even had a customer remotely interested in it.

IHI · 03-04-2008, 07:00 AM

still gotta bad taste in my mouth from back when things went down, so no real intrest in reading/participating in new posts/threads

Funny you mention the color, we've done two more of the green after this one, and we just did the merlot color last fall LOL! we've done nothing in what i would consider "normal" colors

ant989 · 05-18-2008, 02:48 PM

I ordered green. I got it the other day it looked like it was dragged over rocks with alot of white discoloring in it. I am looking for a solid green product but this correct deck doesn't seem to do it for me. Is it the color green that shows all imperfections or I got a bad batch? Thank you Tony

neolitic · 05-18-2008, 02:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ant989

I ordered green. I got it the other day it looked like it was dragged over rocks with alot of white discoloring in it. I am looking for a solid green product but this correct deck doesn't seem to do it for me. Is it the color green that shows all imperfections or I got a bad batch? Thank you Tony

You might get a better response
if you start your own thread.
Don't keep dragging up old threads
and making multiple posts unless
you want to irritate the folks
who could answer you.

ant989 · 05-19-2008, 01:41 PM

thanks

meffaman · 07-17-2008, 09:26 PM

Hey guys, looking to install my first Correctdeck CX deck using the fastenator, and have a question about the first and last course. I know the first and last need to be face screwed, but do you use the grooved material, or do you order a couple pieces of the classic that doesn't have grooves?

My concern is that you'll see the groove on the ends, and with this particular install there will be a lot of traffic up and down on the edge and I'm wondering if the lip/side edge will handle the abuse. Edges will be exposed on both ends of this deck.

IHI · 07-17-2008, 09:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by meffaman

Hey guys, looking to install my first Correctdeck CX deck using the fastenator, and have a question about the first and last course. I know the first and last need to be face screwed, but do you use the grooved material, or do you order a couple pieces of the classic that doesn't have grooves?

My concern is that you'll see the groove on the ends, and with this particular install there will be a lot of traffic up and down on the edge and I'm wondering if the lip/side edge will handle the abuse. Edges will be exposed on both ends of this deck.

I take and run the boards through the table saw and cut a rabbit along one of the edges...basically cutting the bottom part of the groove out, but i back cut it far enough, that when i install either a composite board or the CD skirting the board i just rabbited will sit on top of the skirt board...gives it a nice finished look. I'll do this on all sides...picture frame the deck, 45 all the corners. same with the steps.

The deck i posted above we did the steps like this, but raised the skirting up to cover the cut ends of the CX, but we've since went to picture framing the perimeter since it looks nice and smooth when it's done.

RobertCDF · 07-18-2008, 07:17 AM

We picture frame the perimiter with classic boards so there is no cut ends exposed. You can buy the router bit to cut that slot and router 1 side of the classic board so it can be clipped to the second course.

Glid · 07-18-2008, 09:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RobertCDF

We picture frame the perimiter with classic boards so there is no cut ends exposed. You can buy the router bit to cut that slot and router 1 side of the classic board so it can be clipped to the second course.

Does the router bit match up like it should? I was hesitating on ordering the bit until I needed to, just incase it was dissappointing. 90 buck is short money to find out.

IHI · 07-18-2008, 02:49 PM

I bought the 1/4" round over bit for the CD, but i've yet to try it..i was going to pull it out, but thought once you route the edge, it'd have a different color to it than the surface does since your grinding it away...wont have anymmore glossiness??

robert, lemme know.

RobertCDF · 07-19-2008, 09:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by IHI

I bought the 1/4" round over bit for the CD, but i've yet to try it..i was going to pull it out, but thought once you route the edge, it'd have a different color to it than the surface does since your grinding it away...wont have anymmore glossiness??

robert, lemme know.

You can get the touchup paint and touch up the router cut. It matches fairly well... But most of the time you can just leave a rip cut and no one will really notice. We have done them both ways and I think it just depends on the situation.