Watch the Video on Composite Decking (Fiberon)
HOST: Tell me about Fiber Composites and some of their products.
VENDOR: Well, Fiber Composites is a composite decking and railing extruder (HOST: Right) and they have a number of different brands of decking and railing systems. And one of the house brands is Fiberon, and Fiberon has a number of different types of decking that they offer. They have a professional grade decking, which is kind of your base composite decking system that you see -- very popular all over the US. And then an upgrade from that is our Tropics line, which is supposed to mirror the teaks -- the hardwoods of the world in a composite format that's low maintenance. And then the newest thing that we have that we're offering from Fiber online is what we call Sanctuary -- a PVC composite deck board that combines the performance of PVC and the durability of a composite.
HOST: Right. Most of us think PVC, you know, you can't leave it out in the sun. (VENDOR: Right) Now you've done some kind of treatment to this to make it durable?
VENDOR: Well we have some UV stabilizers that we inject into the material that's kind of like suntan lotion for the board, if you will. And then all the pigments that we use are paint grade pigments. So it's the same type of colorants that are used in outdoor painting as well.
HOST: (GRABS BOARD) Well let me ask you about this, because this -- I mean most composite decking, and I've used a lot of different types -- this is actually the prettiest one I think I've seen. It's got a lot of different color variations. (VENDOR: Yep) Um, does this fade a little bit like some of the others or do we keep, you know, a pretty consistent color?
VENDOR: Every deck, you know, or everything you put outside is going to fade. The key is --
HOST: Anything in the sun is going to fade, right.
VENDOR: The key is to fade consistently and not enough that it really ruins the look of it. And so with our UV ingredients and stabilizers that we put into it and the antioxidants and the paint grade pigments, it will fade but just gradually. And actually with the Tropics -- with the multi-chromatic look that we have -- it's actually like turning the contrast up on your TV. The lights will get slightly lighter. The darks will get slightly darker. But what you won't do is you won't lose this graining pattern. You won't lose that unique look of what it's supposed to resemble is a wood grain.
HOST: Okay. And another thing I noticed -- (POINTING TO BOARD) This is grooved, because on all my decks I use hidden fasteners. (VENDOR: Absolutely) And you guys have a product that works well with this groove.
VENDOR: Yep. We call it the hidden fastener -- the Phantom hidden fastener system. And the Phantom hidden fastener is basically a small metal clip like this (HOLDING CLIP) that's made out of very sturdy steel -- powder coated and stainless so it doesn't rust. And then it attaches to a joist, similar to what this small little model shows.
HOST: (HOLDING MODEL) Like this. (VENDOR: Right) And there's our fastener right down in here.
VENDOR: Right. You put one board down. You drive the fastener into the board this way. (GESTURING) And the one tongue holds the board in place. The next board goes in place on the groove this way, and then you continue on down across the deck adding one fastener to the other.
HOST: Now see that's great because I've seen that in some of the hard woods that we use, but I haven't seen it in a composite.
VENDOR: Yep. This has been a really popular product for us. And what ends up happening is you end up with a surface deck that just has none of the mushrooming, none of the cratering, anything that you would normally get out of a composite. And the only screws that you really need are just around the outside, because of course there's no joist to attach it to.
HOST: Now the buzzword everybody is going to is "green." (VENDOR: Yes) Tell me about composite decking and the recycling end of things.
VENDOR: Right, well that's the great story about composites. All of the wood flour that we use is recycled. So it comes from the furniture industry. It's usually a maple grade wood, which helps prevent some tanning stains that will occur on some of the decking. And it's a -- Maple is a hardwood, so it's a strong wood. But that's all recycled. So that goes into the formulation. Most of the plastic that's in here is also recycled. We take in old yogurt cups, plastic cups, that type of thing. There is some component of virgin materials -- the colorings, the antioxidants, that type of thing -- but overall the majority of it is recycled. So we prevent landfills from happening. We prevent trees from being cut down solely for the use of our decking systems.
HOST: Right. It's a long-lasting product.
VENDOR: Absolutely.
HOST: Well I love it. It's my favorite composite decking. And thanks for stopping by.
VENDOR: (OVER) Good. It's our favorite, too. [END]
Watch the Video on Composite Decking (Fiberon)
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