Storage, more colors, lighting part of deck offerings for 2015

LAS VEGAS – Outdoor living spaces are getting swankier as manufacturers come up with new decking collections that mimic wood and new accessories for design and comfort.

Trex Co. is hitting the deck this year with a new line of outdoor storage units that will add an element of beauty and convenience to yards and patios, especially those with kitchens, bars, spas and pools. The collection includes pull-out ice coolers, bench drawers for pillows and pool toys, hampers for towels and swim suits and trash storage cabinets.

“Trex brings all the comforts you have indoors to the outside,” said Hunter Hackett, a company representative at the International Builders' Show. “It's an evolution to offering a total outdoor solution. The cooler has two inches of insulation that keeps beverages cool for three days and the bench drawers can also go under a deck. It hits that need for beautiful storage instead of just a Rubbermaid bin.”

Made of a dense, low maintenance resin with an adhesive-welded interior of ¾-inch white PVC, the storage cabinetry is manufactured and sold by Florida-based NatureKast Products through a trademark licensing agreement with Trex. Each piece is offered in all colors of Trex Transcend decks to blend into any setting, including Havana Gold, which was added in October.

Complementary colors

Trex Transcend decks, which are made of 95 percent recycled content like polyethylene shopping bags, now come in five colors. A silvery shade called Island Mist also was released last year.

Many deck manufacturers have been expanding the range of earthy classics, tropical tones and deep wood grains to their product offerings.

TimberTech introduced three new colors for its capped composite decks. Two hues — a chocolate color called rustic elm and a cool gray called stone ash — were added to the Terrain collection and a warm gray called Ashwood was added to the Legacy collection.

Azek Deck is out with an entirely new Vintage Collection that it's calling a game-changer in the capped cellular PVC category. The company is going for the indoor flooring look. The line consists of three shades — mahogany, cypress and dark hickory — that were designed to look like freshly stained wood.

And MoistureShield showed a new Brazilian chestnut color for its capstock line of composite decks, bringing the total to three with Ipay and Graystone. The decks are made of 95 percent mix of recycled low and high density polyethylene, such as plastic grocery bags and packaging film, by Advanced Environmental Recycling Technologies Inc.

Brent Gwatney, senior vice president of sales and marketing for MoistureShield, said the look of South American hardwoods is gaining traction.

“We refined our capstock by adding a deeper embossing pattern and more variation between the boards,” he said. “People want something that looks natural — or not to look like plastic — so we really focused on the aesthetics. We already knew we had the mechanics right.”

Ready for launch

MoistureShield also launched three new products — a deck light system, aluminum railing and a privately branded deck clip that acts as a hidden fastener between the deck boards to leave the surface free of screws.

“Private branding the clips helps with the warranty,” President Randy Gottlieb said. “If a deck fails because someone used the wrong clip, who are they going to call? The clip guy? No, they call the deck guy. If everyone knows it's our board and our clip, they know they must go together.”

With the lights and rails, MoistureShield is transforming from a decking company to an outdoor living company, Gottlieb added.

“People have done a lot of work on their homes,” he said. “There are McMansions all over. Now they want to take that outdoor living space and make it another room of the home. We don't want them to use our product and have to piecemeal other things together. We want to make it easy for them to get a nice outdoor space faster. The possibilities are endless”