Jim Ryerson is very careful when he entertains friends on the elevated deck in his back yard.
Sometimes he rearranges the deck chairs to distribute the weight evenly on the beams. He has never had a problem with his wood deck, and he plans to keep it that way.
"I'm realistic. It's a 12-year-old deck. How long can I expect it to be maintenance-free?" said the certified public accountant, who lives in Phoenix with his wife, Sally.
FOR THE RECORD - An article in the June 20 editions of The Sun contained an incorrect figure about the number of people killed when a porch deck collapsed in Chicago nearly a year ago. There were 13 fatalities.
The Sun regrets the error.
The popularity of decks has increased sharply in the past two decades, with as many as 3 million homeowners adding them each year, industry experts say. Since the collapse of a porch deck that killed 18 people nearly a year ago in Chicago, those experts have been urging homeowners to look for warning signs and to undertake regular maintenance.
Maintaining a deck can be dangerous.
A federal regulation has banned the use of chromated copper arsenate, an arsenic compound used to treat decks against termites. Arsenic, a carcinogen, could pose a health threat as a deck starts to decay, environmentalists say. Lumber treated with the compound poses a health risk for 10 to 15 years, they say.
The Chicago accident and the new federal regulations have left many homeowners with questions about materials and safety issues. Among them: Is a deck worth the expense and the care it requires?
Decks return about 77 percent of their investment, according to Remodeling magazine. The magazine reported that a new deck cost $6,000 to $8,000 in 2002. Costs have gone up, however, because of the new regulations and the increased concern about safety issues.
Composite materials and lumber treated with non-arsenic preservatives are more expensive now. Composite materials can cost as much as 30 percent more than lumber. Wood treated with new preservatives can cost 20 percent more than lumber treated with the arsenic material, local builders say.
Composite materials require little maintenance and do not degrade as wood does. Trex Inc. manufactures a widely used composite material made of re cycled plastic and wood. Such decking materials have been around for more than 15 years.
"The higher cost will yield you a longer-lasting deck because you don't have the yearly expenses of maintaining it, in addition to the repairing or replacing expenses associated with traditional decking materials," said Clemens Jellema, owner of Fine Decks Inc. in Owings Mills.
$60 to clean, treat it
