How to Choose a Wood Deck Tile
Increasingly these days, modular interlocking deck tiles are becoming a popular means of resurfacing an existing porch, balcony patio or deck. Compared with alternative options, installing wood deck tiles can be a very attractive option. Nevertheless, if you have a particularly large area to cover, it can still be a significant outlay, so you’ll want to make sure that the deck tiles you select are most appropriate for your specific location and your requirements. Apart from the aspect of price, probably the most important factors you should consider when choosing a wood deck tile are as follows.
Durability – Undoubtedly, one of the main factors to take into account is durability. will the tiles stand up well to the weather conditions in your particular location. And not all wood deck tiles are equal in this respect. Some tiles use extremely durable wood species such as Ipe while others use much less durable species such as Acacia which have a much shorter lifetime. Perhaps one of the best places to check the relative durability of wood species is the USDA Forest Products Laboratory who maintain an online database with information on most commercially available wood species.
Wood thickness – To keep the cost of their product as low as possible, some manufacturers offer tiles using wood slats down to ” thickness. While this may be quite satisfactorily from a structural viewpoint, and can be quite suitable for interior applications such as basement floors, fully covered or semi-covered locations, deck tiles with thinner wood slats generally have a tendency to show greater twisting, cupping or warping under more extreme weather conditions.
Style options – Many manufacturers offer tiles in different styles and maybe different sizes, so you have a greater opportunity to apply your creative design skills. By simply changing the direction of a standard tile you can create an alternating brick pattern, a parallel pattern, or any combination of both. And with additional tile designs, you can make borders or design interesting centrepieces as you wish. And if you don’t like the first design you’ve created, it’s normally quite easy to lift up the tiles and lay them down in a different pattern.
Accessories – Some manufacturers also supply clip on edge pieces which are designed to attach to the outer row of tiles for an attractive professional finish and also hide the view of the plastic base. This is particularly useful in situations where you are installing the tiles on a ground level patio or on a walkway where an unprotected edge could possibly create a tripping hazard.
Plastic base – Whilst the composition of the plastic base may not be the most obvious factor that you would consider, once again there are differences between manufacturers. The most commonly used materials are polyethylene or propylene which give the best combination of stiffness, strength and durability. But other materials are also used such as EVA and PVC. Irrespective of which material is used for the plastic base, it’s important that the polymer is specifically designed for external use and has UV stabilizers incorporated in the polymer.
Wood to base attachment method – Most commonly, the wood slats are attached to the plastic base with steel screws However on cheaper wood tiles, the screws will most likely only be corrosion resistant or electro plated whereas on the more expensive tiles, they will be stainless steel. This is particularly important if the tiles are in contact with water for extended periods or if you are in a seaside environment, since otherwise the screws can rust and eventually fail over time. Another attachment method which avoids this situation altogether is accomplished by inserting plastic pins into holes drilled into the wood slats.
Interlocking method – The majority of tiles on the market use an interconnecting method which is possibly better known as the loop and pin style. With this particular design, the tiles have loops or pins on two sides of the tiles which are matched to the corresponding pins or loops on the other two sides of the tiles. The other interlocking method used by a few manufacturers uses a totally symmetrical design where the connections on any side of one tile will mesh with the connections on any side of another tile. This latter design has advantages in terms of ease of installation and also the ability to remove a single tile from the centre of a deck which has been laid.
Warranty – Warranties offered by most companies can vary quite significantly from just 12 months to up to 10 years, so it’s important check with the tile manufacturing company before you make any purchase. Generally speaking, you can probably assume that a manufacturer who only gives a short warranty does not regard their tiles as having a particularly long lifetime, compensated to some extent by the lower initial cost.
In your research, you will probably note that the prices of wood deck tiles can vary quite considerably and the above notes will hopefully give some pointers as to why there is a difference in the price points between the cheapest and the most expensive tiles.
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September 4th, 2009 at 8:56 pm
I found this article very informative! Thank you!
Here are some other great articles on decking ideas.