If you are building a deck there is always the chance that the lumber may split, rot or get eaten by termites. So some builders are looking for replacement materials. One of these is "Trex", a combination of hardwood wood chips and polymer plastic. New ‘wood’
ideal for decks"It's 50 percent wood, like maple and cherry, and 50 percent polymer, like the polyethylene stretch filler used over pallets," says Scott Fleming, president of Sansea Enterprises Ltd., the company formed as the Hawaii distributor.
He is selling Trex directly out of a warehouse in the Pearl City Industrial Park, 96-1173 Waihona St., area B-3. The price is $1.70 a lineal foot for the deck flooring. The warehouse is open Monday through Friday or by appointment on Saturdays. Honsador at the Campbell Industrial Park also carries Trex decking.
Trex is made at a plant in Winchester, Va. using a heat extrusion process. Trex comes in sizes similar to lumber. The deck flooring is 1-1/4 inches thick by 5-1/2 inches wide, and 12 feet or 16 feet long.
Trex also has been used for projects such as walkways, fencing, docks and marinas on the mainland. Fleming says Trex is heavier and more dense than wood but doesn't have the same structural strength as wood. He does not recommend it for support posts which take the deck's weight.
But Fleming says a job on St. Louis Heights used Trex for the railings, with horizontal copper pipe to carry electrical wiring for lights.
Trex has a soft gray color, taken from the plastic. No color is added.
Jerry Tune, Honolulu Bulletin