[highlander316]

i have a customer that has a lot of decking in the back of his house made out of Trex material. What can be used to melt the ice on it w/out damage, or is regular rock salt or calcium chloride ok?

 

[cincy snowdog]

not for sure what is the best, but i would be careful,trex is ground up milk jugs and pallets and it is then extruded,if you look close you can see the nails or staples(small pieces) from the skids, it is right at the surface but smooth ,but with that the steel pieces can rust faster with the salt causing rust staining.i have installed a few decks with that stuff in the ninetys ,real soft when it came to screwing it down or sawing.could' nt use nails,so the screws should be coated.hope this helps.

 

[LoneCowboy]

Everytime we've done wooden decking, (not necessarily Trex), we use sand.
Yeah, it sucks and it doesn't melt ice, but it doesn't destroy the wood.
It just adds some traction.
We just leave buckets of sand at the job site, so we can spread it there.
any salt will just eat the wood right up.