Several years ago the
ThruFlow™ company sought out the opportunity for a long term test of its decking panels. It was desired that this be a tough and demanding test. Canaveral National Seashore park on the barrier island on route A1A south of New Symrna Beach was looking for alternatives to the standard wood decking and other composite options due to shortcomings in those technologies. This was the perfect place for our real-world endurance testing. Moreover for this test, we were able to secure the first location inside the park entrance, where there is not only the first parking stop, but beach access and dare I say, bathroom access. This was around June 2008.
Here are some of the challenges we felt this location offered:
- 300,000 - 500,000 visitors per year
- UV testing in the Florida Sunshine
- Beach Sand
- Salt Water Environment
We were not concerned about UV tolerance. Very extensive UV testing had already been done under laboratory conditions, and by outside objective testing organizations. It is possible for high intensity UV lamps to simulate in days or weeks many many years of Florida and Carribean island sunshine. Under these controlled conditions we already knew that the UV inhibitors and former experience of the ThruFlow Corporation had designed a product to withstand this test.
Salt water ... what to say here ??
Two test sections were built into the dune crossover, see photo 1 and 2. The first one is near the parking lot. The second just beyond the beach to dune walk transition. The rest of the dune cross over is using PT (pressure treated wood). Of course, Canaveral National Seashore park has traditionally used PT lumber for dune crossovers, with regular maintenance and decking replacement required.
I remember our first visit shortly after the installation, an senior couple was walking back to their car from the beach, and one of them asked the park construction supervisor) if these sections had been built into the walkway to knock the sand off their feet before they got to their car, and without skipping a beat Mark said yes. Of course this somewhat unexpected benefit is in part key to the sand abrasion resistance of the ThruFlow™ sections. Each rain or walk over shuffles the grains of sand to the openings in the decking and therefore there is very little accumulation of sand on the deck, most of it is below the anti-slip texture features.
Note the photo where the accumulation is in-between the anti-slip bands, which allows the grains of sand to lay about a 1/16 inch lower elevation than the raised anti-slip bands, thereby reducing the pressure between the foot and the decking material. From there, the sand can shuffle down through the openings, leaving the sand on the beach. This greatly aids the survival of the composite decking against sand abrasion.
By contrast, see photo 4 which illustrates one of the types of common faults with pressure treated lumber. First, it is the intense Florida Sun that causes a crack to open along the grain. Sand accumulates in the open grain and has no where to go. This type of failure will only get worse over time and ultimately require replacement.
Another type of Pr
essure Treated lumber failure is a warpage. This can manifest itself as bending lower than the adjacent planks as shown in photo 5. If this type of failure becomes advanced enough it can actually pose a pedestrian trip hazard.
Yet another type of pressure treated lumber failure is grain flaking. Note that photo 6 has grain completely separating chips. Each new pedestrian step is going to work those chips free, and then leave an uneven surface, which is likely to hold water, sand and accelerate the deterioration.
ThruFlow™ deck panels are simply free from these types of failures. It is likely that pressure treated lumber sections will require multiple replacements over the lifespan of the ThruFlow™ panels.
Of course, regular maintenance can be done on the lumber formed deck, including replacement of deteriorated planks and regular finish coatings. In addition to the labor and time expense of this maintenance, Canaveral Seashore National park does not want to apply finishes for environmental reasons. Any finish applied is going to, over time, wash to the environment below the dune cross-over.
Typically, there is no warranty on pressure treated lumber. It is expected to deteriorate in various ways dependent on the environment. However, there are specific expectations with composite materials. Somehow, man made implies responsibility, nature made does not. ThruFlow offers an 11 non-prorated year warranty for its product. On a square foot basis, ThruFlow is priced in line with other composite decking alternatives. However, all modern composite materials are more expensive than wood planking, at least initially. But a true cost comparassion needs to consider the long life. In other words, it needs a longer amortization period to understand the true cost.
In addition to UV resistance, ThruFlow also has worked hard to ensure that color changes over time are very limited. This means that if a dune walk needs to be extended, there will be little color difference between the initial panels and those that might be used several years later.
ThruFlow is very well suited to high traffic areas. It can meet per square foot commercial loading to 180 lbs/sq foot requirements, depending on the stringer spacing that is choosen.
