One of my favorite parts of attending Deck Expo is prowling the aisles looking for new or unusual tools, products, and materials that might be of interest to deck builders. This year, I was a little distracted with the activities at our new PDB Zone, so investigation time was limited. Still, there were several interesting gems to be found, both from the well-established decking manufacturers and from smaller companies who were hoping to find an audience among the show-goers. Here’s a round-up of some of the products from the latter group, in no particular order:
On display at the Terraza booth was its unique new (to the U.S. market anyway; the product, which is made in Spain, has been available in Europe for years) decking and cladding. Basically, Terraza is a 4-ft. x 8-ft.-ish composite panel with a resin core and a high-pressure laminate top skin, which has been imprinted with a wood texture for slip-resistance. The approximately 4-ft. x 8-ft. panels can be used as is for cladding, or the company can CNC-cut them into unique shapes to spec, or simply rip them to 6-inch, 8-inch, or 12-inch widths for decking.
Speaking of wood, I was intrigued by the black-locust decking that I found at the Robi Decking booth. Sometimes called Chinese teak, black locust is a native North American species that is well-known for its natural rot-resistance. I’ve heard of black-locust fence posts, but never decking, until now. As company founder Zach Rike explained to me, black locust is comparable to ipe in terms of durability, but the trees grow relatively quickly (40 years to harvest) and are widely available throughout the U.S., making them a more sustainable choice than even FSC-certified tropical hardwoods. The company offers eastern-juniper and sassafras decking and black-walnut T&G porch flooring, too.
Later, on the show floor, my arm was being twisted by veteran deck builder and long-time PDB contributor Kim Katwijk, who was eager to show me examples of deck lighting fixtures that don’t work, and one fixture that does. At the in-Lite booth, Kim pointed out an outdoor fixture with a design that prevented light from shining directly into the eyes, even when mounted at eye-level. “This is an example of good lighting,” he explained, “because you see what is being illuminated, and not the light itself.”
Finally, there were a couple of unique products that caught my eye. One is called the GH Leveller, which is basically a beefy threaded rod connected to a fixed mounting plate at one end and an adjustable mounting plate at the other. At his booth, I chatted with Geoff Heschel, company president and a friendly Canadian from Saskatchewan, who patiently explained how he developed the product and was hoping to introduce it to the American market.
Another was Metwood’s MTW deck bracket, code-compliant hardware that can be used to provide a deck ledger connection on structures with stone or masonry veneer siding. You could also use these cold-formed galvanized steel brackets to support a ledger if you are building an energy-efficient house wrapped with a thick layer of rigid foam insulation.
This article originally appeared in Professional Deck Builder.
