RANGE REVIEW: OUTDOOR LIVING
A PRIME ALTERNATIVE TOTIMBER
Charles Taylor from composite products supplier, Composite Prime, highlights the features and benefits of composite materials and discusses how they can offer an alternative to timber for DIY retailers and end user customers.
T he pandemic has
driven homeowners to re-evaluate their gardens and use outdoor spaces as an extension of their
home. Laying decking helps to create an increased sense of space and offers a dedicated area for al-fresco dining and entertaining. Composite decking in particular, is extremely low maintenance and suitable for high traffic environments that are prone to spillages and stains.
Durable properties When selecting materials for a DIY decking project, composites should be considered due to their durable properties. Many homeowners underestimate the maintenance a timber deck needs, or have not considered replacing an old timber substructure frame with composite deck boards, which require far less upkeep.
Particularly during the national lockdown, gardening and the use of outdoor spaces has soared, with considerable investment being made in outdoor spaces. In 2020, Brits spent more than £16 billion renovating their gardens and over half of them have carried out their own DIY updates, rather than hiring a professional.
Composite decking brand, Composite Prime announced that sample requests for its products increased by 1,000 percent since March 2020. Sales have also boomed with a 600 percent increase in purchases from the first trading quarter of 2020 to that in 2021, demonstrating that sustainable garden design is becoming a priority for many homeowners.
Customer case study A family of five from York recognised the benefits of installing composite decking and transformed their tiny, unusable 60 metre back garden into a stunning outdoor living space.
16 DIY WEEK MAY 2021
Mother of three, Sera Sekerci chose to install Composite Prime’s HD Deck 150 in silver for her previously unattractive back garden. Composite Prime’s sustainability
credentials were very important to the family, as they looked to create a garden that not only looked visually appealing, but was also kind to
the environment. Each
square metre of Composite Prime’s decking contains the equivalent of more than 3,000 plastic bottle caps or 280 plastic bottles. In the six years of operation the brand has saved the equivalent of 151 million plastic milk bottles from landfill. Composite Prime combines the FSC 100% hardwood flour (a waste product of hardwood production) and recycled plastic to produce a durable, natural-looking decking product that outperforms traditional treated timber. The wooden fibres and plastic shavings are combined with colour pigments before being heated and extruded.
The plastic content gives the
boards a long lifespan without the need to treat or seal the decking, whilst the wood content enables the product to retain its natural look and feel. The finished product is engineered to ensure that it meets the requirements of DIY enthusiasts, landscapers and garden designers across the board. Prior to its revamp, Sera’s garden
featured a curved side wall, a patch of uneven grass and drab, concrete paving slabs. From May until mid August 2020, Sera and her father worked on the outdoor space using Youtube tutorials to navigate laying artificial grass, planting flowers and digging an area to install composite decking.
Ease of installation
Another key benefit of Composite Prime products is the ease at which the decking can be installed. Whilst traditional decking options can often be laborious and tricky
“Composite is the fastest-growing timber decking alternative currently available on the market” to take on,
screws. The clips
material; these include fire ratings, slip resistance and no-splintering. A capped layer to the decking also increases protection against fading, staining and other potentially damaging elements, making the ideal option for high traffic, outdoor living.
family requiring specialist
tools, Composite Prime has a sophisticated clip system, which is incredibly easy to fix and avoid unsightly
are
unique in their design, allowing both adjacent and end boards to be fixed with one single clip. Sara’s beautiful outdoor area, which can now be used to entertain friends and family year-round, includes lighting and soft furnishings, alongside an outdoor sofa. Composite is the fastest-growing timber decking alternative currently available on the market. Although traditional timber decking has been the preferred choice of many for years, it’s a high maintenance product, which requires
annual
painting and staining. Composite decking however is a simple, no fuss alternative due to its unique formula which produces a high quality finished product that does not rot or decay. There are an abundance of safety
aspects to Composite Prime decking, which attracts homeowners to the
Bespoke designs Composite decking product to
is an ideal shape outdoor living
spaces as its versatility in colour and texture allows people to create completely bespoke designs, to tailor their outdoor living areas to their personal and family requirements. Products
such as Composite
Prime’s HD Deck Dual, have a reversible two-colour option on each board, which not only saves space in retail warehouses, but also offers DIYers the opportunity to lay a deck with contrasting colours to create a unique finish. Additionally, in time dual-sided boards make it easy to refresh the deck by simply turning the deck over to reveal the new colour.
To find out more about sustainable composite decking and for informative videos on how to build a deck, visit
www.compositeprime.co.uk/ resources
www.diyweek.net
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