What is Modified Wood Decking?
Imagine a deck that offers the beauty of natural wood while being able to withstand the test of time. Modified wood decking emerges as one of the best woods for decks, providing homeowners with an attractive, durable solution for their outdoor spaces. This innovative material undergoes treatments that enhance its properties, making it a top choice in modern decking solutions.
Modified wood stands out due to its consistent quality, low maintenance, and enhanced durability. Unlike traditional wood, it is engineered to resist decay and pests, ensuring a longer lifespan with minimal upkeep.
As outdoor living spaces grow in popularity, understanding why modified wood ranks among the best wood for decks is essential for anyone considering a decking project. This article explores the benefits, characteristics, and thermal modification process of modified wood decking, comparing it with traditional and composite materials to help you determine if it’s the ideal choice for your next deck.
Characteristics of Modified Wood
Modified wood decking is a standout choice for outdoor applications due to its enhanced properties compared to traditional wood. Through advanced treatments like thermal modification, modified wood maintains its natural beauty while offering excellent durability and stability. This makes it an environmentally friendly option with significantly less environmental impact than untreated or pressure-treated wood.
Consistent quality
Modified wood is engineered to provide consistent quality across all installations. Each board is manufactured to high standards, ensuring it is free from defects or weak spots common in traditional wood decking. This consistency ensures that homeowners can trust in the longevity and reliability of modified wood, providing confidence that every piece will match the expected performance and durability.
Low maintenance requirements
Thermally modified wood (TMW) requires minimal upkeep compared to untreated wood. Its enhanced resistance to moisture, decay, and insects means it does not require chemical preservatives, staining, or regular maintenance like traditional wood decking. TMW’s ability to resist stains and fading also reduces the need for frequent refinishing, offering a hassle-free solution for exterior wood applications.
Enhanced durability
The thermal modification process significantly increases the durability of modified wood. This treatment hardens the wood, making it resistant to scratches, dents, and wear. Removing natural sugars eliminates food sources for mold and insects, prolonging the wood’s lifespan and protecting it from rot and decay. Modified wood can withstand the elements better than non-modified wood, ensuring a long-lasting and resilient surface.
Improved stability
Thermally modified wood decking offers improved stability due to its reduced expansion and contraction in response to temperature and humidity changes. This modification enhances the wood’s resistance to weather and fungal rot, reducing the risk of warping, twisting, or cracking. By altering the wood’s cellular structure, thermal modification ensures that decking maintains its structural integrity and appearance over an extended period, even in fluctuating weather conditions.
Advantages of Modified Wood Decking
Modified wood decking offers numerous benefits, making it an excellent choice for outdoor living spaces. The thermal modification process enhances its durability, making it resistant to rot, decay, and insect infestations. This treatment also results in a more stable product that experiences minimal expansion and contraction during seasonal shifts. As a non-toxic alternative to chemically treated wood, modified wood provides a safe option for homeowners and the environment, requiring minimal maintenance due to its resistance to outdoor elements.
Long lifespan
Thermally modified wood decking boasts a lifespan of 25-30 years, surpassing untreated wood options. The thermal modification process enhances durability by improving rot, decay, and insect infestation resistance. This treatment also stabilizes the wood, minimizing expansion and contraction due to moisture, which prevents warping and cracking. As the sugars are removed during high heat treatment, the wood resists bacterial or fungal decay, contributing to its extended lifespan.
Resistance to decay and pests
The thermal modification process significantly boosts the wood’s resistance to rot, decay, and insect infestations. In this process, the wood is heated to high temperatures, cooking out sugars that attract insects, fungi, and mold. Modified wood naturally seals itself against water, offering formidable protection against decay. This increased resistance ensures that thermally modified wood lasts significantly longer than untreated wood, making it an ideal choice for wood decks exposed to various environmental elements.
Aesthetic appeal
Thermally modified wood enhances the natural beauty of wood, offering a rich, deep hue similar to exotic hardwoods. This process intensifies the wood’s natural color, eliminating the need for additional staining and providing a lasting natural wood finish. Unlike composite or PVC decking, which cannot match the depth and authenticity of natural timber, thermally modified wood retains its aesthetic appeal, resisting fading and deterioration amidst the elements. This ensures the decking maintains its visual integrity over time while preserving its original color.
Modified Wood vs. Traditional Wood
Modified wood decking undergoes a scientific process that alters its cellular structure, enhancing its properties compared to traditional wood decking. This process, whether chemical, physical, or biological, improves durability, dimensional stability, and resistance to decay and water absorption. Traditional wood lacks these enhancements, making modified wood a superior choice for longevity.
Thermally modified wood is more stable against seasonal changes, reducing expansion and contraction. This stability helps maintain its integrity over time, minimizing issues like splintering or cracking. With its eco-friendly manufacturing process and reduced environmental impact, modified wood also provides a sustainable option compared to traditional wood treatments.
Comparison with Cedar
Modified wood is competitively priced with premium cedar, though it generally costs more than treated pine. However, the reduced maintenance requirements of modified wood can offset these initial costs. Both modified wood and cedar are suitable for outdoor environments, with excellent durability and the ability to maintain or develop a weathered look. This makes them appealing choices in line with current design trends.
Comparison with Treated Pine
While modified wood is two to three times the cost of basic treated pine, it offers significant advantages that justify the investment. It resists rot, decay, and insect damage better than treated pine, making it more durable. The greater stability of modified wood, thanks to its resistance to temperature and humidity changes, ensures superior longevity and performance. This can result in less frequent maintenance needs than treated pine, making it a cost-effective option.
Modified Wood vs. Composite and PVC Materials
Modified wood decking undergoes a thermal modification process that enhances its stability and resistance to rot, making it more reliable than composite and PVC materials in handling seasonal changes. This heat treatment does not use chemical additives, positioning modified wood as a greener alternative to composite decking, which can contain chemicals and require energy-intensive production processes. Additionally, due to sugar removal, thermally modified wood is more resistant to insects, fungi, and mold, allowing it to outlast traditional untreated wood and many composite options.
On the other hand, PVC decking boasts high durability and is impervious to mold and mildew, but it often relies on virgin PVC, raising environmental concerns. The brittleness of modified wood increases slightly compared to its original form, whereas composite materials typically retain greater flexibility.
Aesthetics
Thermally modified wood enhances outdoor spaces’ natural look, providing both beauty and performance. Its durability and stability ensure a prolonged visual appeal, making it ideal for decking and outdoor furniture. A splinter-free surface offers comfortable underfoot experiences and maintains an attractive appearance, serving as a viable alternative to traditional woods like cedar and treated pine.
Modified wood’s aesthetic versatility allows it to integrate seamlessly into various outdoor projects. Its ability to complement diverse home designs makes it adaptable to different architectural styles, ensuring a harmonious look in any setting.
Durability
Thermally modified wood boasts increased resistance to rot, decay, and insect damage, surpassing the durability of natural wood decking. The thermal modification process boosts the wood’s hardness, making it more resistant to scratches and wear. With a potential lifespan of up to 30 years, it significantly outlasts pressure-treated wood, which can lose stability and affect metal components over time.
Modified wood’s reduced shrinkage—up to 50% less than untreated wood—ensures enhanced longevity and a stable structure. Its resistance to fungi and microorganisms further enhances its durability, making it an excellent choice for long-lasting decking.
Sustainability
Produced using heat and steam rather than chemicals, thermally modified wood decking has a reduced environmental footprint. It often comes from sustainable forestry, offering an eco-friendly option for decking. By choosing thermally modified wood, homeowners contribute to environmental stability due to its low impact compared to traditional materials.
The thermal modification process enhances durability and lifespan and lowers replacement needs, minimizing waste. Derived from renewable resources, it presents a sustainable choice beneficial to both the planet and consumers.
Pricing
Although thermally modified wood decking may have a higher upfront cost than natural wood, it saves more long-term due to reduced maintenance. Its durability ensures a life expectancy of 25-30 years, far exceeding traditional wood decking. Despite the higher initial investment, the wood’s resistance to fading and stains minimizes overall costs.
Modified wood decking, offered by brands like Accoya, Kebony, and Thermory, typically comes with a higher upfront cost than traditional decking materials due to the specialized treatments that enhance its durability and longevity. The cost of modified wood decking ranges from $10 to $20 per square foot, depending on the brand, wood species, and geographical location. In contrast, traditional options like pressure-treated lumber usually cost between $2 to $5 per square foot, while cedar or redwood ranges from $6 to $15 per square foot.
The thermal modification enhances wood stability, leading to fewer repairs and replacements, which can offset the initial financial outlay. Its eco-friendly attributes appeal to environmentally conscious consumers, making it competitive despite the initial cost.
The Thermal Modification Process
The thermal modification process enhances wood quality using heat and steam, avoiding chemical treatments. This method improves the wood’s stability and durability, making it resistant to weather conditions and fungal decay. By becoming hydrophobic or water-resistant, thermally modified wood lasts longer, preserving its natural beauty over time. Compared to untreated wood or traditional wood decking, it effectively reduces the risk of warping, cupping, and cracking. The process eliminates acids and sugars, improving the wood’s resistance to insect damage, fungi, and mold.
Overview of the Process
The thermal modification process involves heating wood to high temperatures in a controlled environment, which changes its chemical structure and cellular-level properties. This process stabilizes the wood, making it less likely to shrink or expand based on seasonal weather changes. By removing natural sugars, the wood no longer offers a food source for mold and insects, enhancing durability. The wood also becomes an environmentally friendly choice since the method doesn’t use chemical preservatives, allowing quicker acclimation to indoor and outdoor environments.
Benefits of Thermal Modification
Thermally modified wood gains enhanced durability and longevity due to its strengthened cell structure, increasing resistance to rot, decay, and insect infestation. The process stabilizes the wood, enhancing performance in exterior wood decking applications by minimizing shrinkage and seasonal movement. Unlike pressure-treated wood, this environmentally friendly process doesn’t rely on toxic chemicals and often uses locally sourced species. With improved dimensional stability, modified wood shows less humidity or temperature-induced expansion, reducing warping, twisting, or cracking. This modification alters the wood’s chemical structure, particularly sugars, further increasing resistance to decay and extending its lifespan.
Suitability for New Decking Projects
Thermally modified wood decking is an excellent choice for outdoor projects, offering high stability and rot resistance. Its ability to withstand moisture and temperature fluctuations makes it ideal for environments prone to such conditions. With a lifespan of up to 30 years, it outlasts traditional pressure-treated wood and provides long-term durability.
This type of wood is naturally resistant to insects and mold due to the sugars being removed during the thermal modification process. This enhances its longevity and reduces the likelihood of insect damage. Moreover, thermally modified wood decking is more sustainable than conventional options, as it comes from renewable resources and has a reduced environmental impact.
Factors to consider
The thermal modification process increases wood hardness by 30% to 50%, making it more scratch-resistant and durable than untreated wood. Its stability results in less expansion and contraction due to moisture, maintaining a smooth surface year-round. Though it has a higher upfront cost, the long-term savings through reduced maintenance and increased durability are substantial.
Thermally modified wood is highly resistant to fungi and microorganisms that cause decay, improving its suitability for outdoor applications. Its non-toxic nature presents a safer and more environmentally friendly alternative to chemically treated wood.
Maintenance requirements
Although more durable than untreated wood, thermally modified wood requires periodic maintenance to extend its lifespan. Unsealed or unfinished planks may lose their color faster, so regular checks on product specifications are essential to maintaining their appearance. An oil-based finish can help preserve their original color.
Despite its durability, untreated thermally modified wood might gray faster, underscoring the need for proper maintenance to retain aesthetic appeal. Maintaining these decks is crucial to preventing structural issues like rotting or warping, ensuring they remain an excellent choice for decking applications.
Brands of Modified Wood Decking
Some well-known brand names of modified wood used for decking include:
- Accoya: Accoya wood undergoes an acetylation process that alters the wood at the molecular level, enhancing its durability, dimensional stability, and resistance to rot. It’s sourced from sustainable forests and is known for its long lifespan.
- Kebony: Kebony uses a patented process that impregnates sustainable softwoods with a bio-based liquid, enhancing the wood’s hardness and durability. The result is a low-maintenance decking material that resembles tropical hardwoods.
- Thermory: Thermory offers thermally modified wood products. Their process involves heating the wood at high temperatures to improve its stability, durability, and resistance to decay without the use of chemicals.
- LIGNIA: LIGNIA modifies softwood by infusing it with resin and then curing it, resulting in a product with enhanced hardness and stability similar to hardwoods. It’s also sourced from sustainable plantations.
- Abodo: Abodo produces thermally modified timber that’s designed to be durable and stable in outdoor conditions. Their products are sourced from rapidly renewable plantations and are treated without harmful chemicals.
- Cambia: Cambia Wood uses a thermal modification process to improve the durability and stability of North American hardwoods. The wood is heated in a controlled environment, enhancing its performance for outdoor use.
- Noya Wood: Noya offers modified wood products that are treated to improve resistance against weathering, decay, and insect attack, suitable for decking and other outdoor applications.
- Lunawood: Specializing in thermally modified Nordic pine and spruce, Lunawood’s products are known for their enhanced stability and resistance to decay, making them suitable for various climatic conditions.
These brands utilize different wood modification processes—such as thermal modification, acetylation, or chemical infusion—to enhance the natural properties of wood, making them more suitable for decking by improving durability, stability, and resistance to environmental factors.
Quality Grades of Modified Wood
Modified wood decking offers improved durability and longevity compared to traditional wood materials, making it a worthwhile investment despite its higher initial cost. The modification process alters the cellular structure of the wood, enhancing properties like dimensional stability and decay resistance. This means modified wood decks require minimal maintenance and maintain their smooth, splinter-free surface, providing a safer environment for children and pets.
Understanding Quality Ratings
Modified wood provides consistent quality as an engineered product, meets high standards, and reduces the likelihood of defects compared to untreated, traditional woods. The thermal modification process significantly enhances its durability, making it more resistant to scratches, dents, and general wear and tear. Modified wood experiences less expansion and contraction due to moisture, improving stability and reducing the likelihood of cracks and warping.
The heat treatment used in wood manufacturing also increases its hardness, making it typically 30% to 50% harder than the original wood. This enhanced hardness contributes to superior stability and longevity in decking applications. Thanks to its excellent resistance to water absorption and insect damage, modified wood stands out for its low maintenance requirements, needing only occasional cleaning with soap and water—unlike traditional wood decking, which demands regular staining or sealing.
