Trex

Too hot on feet. Do not get – Any amount of sun on it and it burns the feet. Way too hot on the skin. Not ideal for anyone, especially children and pets. As soon as the sun hits it, it is like walking on fire. Do not recommend. Safety issue

Trex decking fades... despite what they guarantee you – Purchased Trex decking for a deck near our pool. We specifically spent more so that we wouldnt have the maintenance and the fading. 5 years in and the decking is completly faded - not the warm, timber look we paid for. It has completely lightened and grey'd out in areas. Exactly the opposite to how they market it. I have attempted to get… Read more

someone out to have a look at it but to no avail. They won't have a bar of it. It's meant to be a lifetime warranty but Ive got no chance at all of getting it replaced or partly replaced. Customer service after sales is nil and the product not what they say. Very disgruntled as spent a fortune on it.

Definitely does not do what the company says - Even worse company to deal with for warranty claim – We had the Trex decking installed by our contractor as we thought it would be value for money noting the advertised very low maintenance required compared to traditional timber decking. Within 6 months or so of it being installed the dark 'timber look finish' was showing a white-greyish discolouration. I tried to clean it and it appeared to be… Read more

okay....until it dried. Then it just had the same appearance. I contacted Trex and a chap came out and spent about 30 minutes cleaning length of about 300mm on one board with a vinegar solution. This seemed to work, but, again, just a few weeks later the exact same situation occurred. I contacted him and he said that it would be a warranty claim and that all warranty type claims were handled by the Trex office in the USA. I contacted them and over a long drawn out process of emails back and forth, the company finally said that the situation was a 'dirty deck' situation and not covered under warranty. This is definitely NOT a dirty deck situation and we are devastated that our new and expensive deck now appears to be worn, old and ratty. SIMPLY A PRODUCT THAT DOES NOT LIVE UP TO THE PRODUCT PROMOTIONAL SPIEL, IS NOT FEASIBLE OR VALUE FOR MONEY, WITH A COMPANY THAT DOES NOT STAND BY IT'S PRODUCT WARRANTY. I would suggest you use good fashioned old hardwood decking instead of this product!

Thoroughly recommend Trex – We installed Trex decking under our large Pavilion 4 years ago. I had read some promising reviews from the USA as it didn’t seem to be widely installed in Australia at that point in time. We have been so pleased with product. It is a unique Smokey grey grain finish and it has not moved or stained at all. I just hose it off if there is any… Read more

bird poo. It is next to a pool and hasn’t discoloured at all. If you want a very low maintenance and stunning deck, it’s worth considering.

Read this before buying – Our Trex decking was installed in December 2019. We live in a very green area of Melbourne and our backyard had a lot of garden along with gravel paths (ie, like lilydale toppings, tuscan toppings etc). We were sold on the idea of composite decking because we’d had timber decking before and the 6 monthly maintenance was a lot of work. The Trex… Read more

product claimed that all you need to do was hose it off with some water pressure, or just give it a light scrub with a soapy broom first for stubborn stuff. We figured that sounded great.

Within a week of the installation, the deck looked like it was caked in mud. This was obviously residue from the gravel paths, as we could see our footprints, especially if it had been wet and we’d been in the garden. We figured it was no big deal and used our high pressure water system to give it a clean. At first it looked spotless. Not long after, we realised it was only because it hadn’t completely dried yet.

Once it was completely dry, it looked exactly like it did before the wash. We were stunned. I figured maybe I had the water pressure nozzle too far from the deck and as a result the dirt hadn’t dislodged. I went back out and tried again. After it had dried, it still looked like it was caked in mud. Over the following few weekends, we tried using the soapy broom method, first with a soft bristled broom, then with a stiffer broom, always finishing by hosing off. It still looked the same. I thought maybe the water drying on the deck was dirty and figured soaking it up with something might help, so after the next clean, I introduced a sponge mop as the last step, soaking up water and squeezing it out away from the deck until it had dried. It still looked the same.

At this point, we figured we should just ask our installer if we were doing something wrong. After telling him all of this, he admitted something didn’t sound right, so he offered to come and clean it himself. After he had, he watched it dry and was amazed it still looked dirty.

He came back some weeks later and tried with a vinegar solution. It still looked the same.

He contacted Trex about it. They asked him to try using CLR, so he came back and did. It still looked the same.

For the following 10 months or so, not much happened. Trex then tried to blame us for it. They made a string of claims like:

1) Obviously we had someone acid wash our bricks after the deck was installed - This was garbage. Which building company hands houses over before a brick clean is done??? That has to happen right after lockup!! 2) Obviously we had somehow gotten the deck covered in something damaging, like concrete dust - Again, absolute garbage as we had no concrete paths in the backyard. 3) Obviously we had used a cleaning agent that was not allowed and therefore damaged the surface - Again, a load of garbage because our installer had done most of the attempted cleaning and we’d only ever used detergent or plain water.

Mind you, these accusations were being made even without them sending a rep to inspect and despite what our installer was telling them. I told them that the only unusual thing used for cleaning was when our installer used CLR because they told him to. They then had the nerve to say it was not a recommended product and therefore we had now invalidated our warranty. Our installer was furious (given he was acting on their instructions) so he spent some time arguing with them. Sometime down the track we were finally offered either a refund (minus installation costs) or replacement. We opted for a replacement.

We waited another few months, only to be told that Trex changed their mind, and now wanted to send the installer to try and clean it again with a much more aggressive method (some kind of solution that would sit on the deck for an hour before being cleaned off). We were told if it didn’t work or, at worst, damaged the decking further, they would then replace it. Please note that at this stage it had been a year and a half since we first raised the problem. What completely amazes us is that we are talking about a fairly small deck (approx. 25 square metres) and they still put up this much resistance during a warranty claim. What chance would anyone have if the deck were larger??

When we’d heard this, we decided we’d had enough. We were sick of constantly moving BBQ’s and furniture back and forth just so the deck could be cleaned over and over. We were sick of the accusations and lies. We were just sick of having to deal with this. I explained that even if this new solution worked, it would be absolutely pointless, as we weren’t going to spend time going to such huge lengths to clean the deck every month. We may as well have stuck with timber decking and oiled it every 6 months. This logic seemed to be lost on them. I contacted the installer and told him to cancel this latest clean and to tell Trex we would just put up with what we have. He tried to talk me out of it, but after 1 and a half years of this, not to mention being offered a replacement only to have it withdrawn and made conditional, we didn’t want to deal with this anymore. Given they had already told the installer to use a non-recommended method before, then tried to invalidate our warranty, we no longer had any trust or patience left.

I will say that the product is resilient. It does seem to take a lot to physically damage it (we haven’t yet), which is why I gave it 2 stars instead of one. Nevertheless, before buying this stuff, keep in mind how hard the company will try to do nothing if you need some support. You may have to give them an organ or something. If you’d rather have peace of mind after you spend this amount of money, I would look somewhere else.