You know about the Costco Syndrome, right? If you see something out of the ordinary you like, you better buy it now because the next time you visit the store it will be gone.
I learned this lesson last year with some woodworking benches. They were 3' x 6', 1.5' thick maple with steel legs. Would have worked great in my garage shop, but when I returned the next week with my trailer they were all gone. Shit, screwed again by the Kirkland company.Well, that corollary carries over to building products too. I'm not talking about plain vanilla 2x4s and the like, but other speciality items like TREX Decking. When we bought decking for our four decks and porches last fall (see Day 296), this was a "always in stock" item. No problem. 2 x 6 boards, 1/1/8" thick (5/4 x 6), and in Winchester Gray (gray). They'd sold millions of board feet: the Levi 505s of decking. So now we go to order another 72 linear feet, and the answer is that Trex has "discontinued that product." Only available as a 1" product, which won't really span 16" joists according to last year's literature. We're screwed. Either go thinner or go to a different product, which may or may not match.
Luckily, Magic Melissa at Carl's was able to round up enough of the old product for us to finish the steps for the sunroom deck. The supplier was probably happy to get rid of the last of the old Trex Accents decking that they had. Two of the boards look like bananas, with about 2" of warpiture in 12 ft. Luckily, this stuff is pretty flexible, so I can screw down the ends and bend the middle in or out to make it straight again. We have some Trex spacers that allow you to fit the boards parallel, so we'll put these in place then force the boards into a parallel configuration (with blocking) and screw them in place. We're using 3" TrapEase composite decking screws (Fastenmaster.com), which make a pilot hole and then grab the decking and screw it down to the joists. Square drive bit, makes for easy work. I'll start the decking tomorrow (Tuesday) when I have all my wits about me. If I screw up and ruin a board, then there is no replacement, so there's no reason to start his little job at the end of a holiday.
Oops. I started cutting the deck boards and noticed a little problem. The 20 ft one was going to be on the outside, with 45° miters on the corners. No problem; cut the two pieces to size than got some leftovers from the previous decks and cut the returns (pieces going back into the deck). Discovered that the 20 ft piece was a new dimension board (1" thick) so I have a mismatch on the returns and all the other pieces. At first I thought about shimming up the outer board (add 1/8" plastic shims), but this is a hokie fix. So back to Carls and Melissa. The solution is to find at least 20 ft of old Trex (1 1/8" thick) or send the "old boards" back and get all new material. She's shaking the trees, but it will take a week to ship either material to PT. Looks like this project is on hold, and its back to landscaping and garage organization.
