09:34 – It was 57.3F (14C) when I took Colin out at about 0645 this morning, again sunny and calm.
The insurance adjuster showed up yesterday about 10:30. We started in the master bathroom upstairs, where the hardwood floor had been flooded and warped. I expected him to say they’d pay for sanding it down and refinishing it, which he did. But then he started measuring the whole upstairs, saying that since the hardwood floor is continuous upstairs they’d pay to have all of it sanded down and refinished. The laundry room, kitchen, den, dining room, foyer and the large foyer closet, master bedroom, master bath, and master closet. Geez. That I didn’t expect. He said we’d have to have all the furniture moved out, which they’d pay for, and we’d have to stay in a hotel for a week to ten days, which they’d also pay for. I told him that I doubted that Barbara would go for that. He said it didn’t matter. They’d pay for it no matter how much or how little we decided to do. So what we’ll probably do is have the floor in the master bath replaced and refinished and just put a divider strip in the doorway.
Downstairs, they’re going to replace the sheetrock ceiling and pay to replace the carpeting in the major room, along with incidentals like repairing some wall damage, repainting, and so on. I told him that we planned to replace the ceiling with a drop ceiling, and he said that was fine. They’d pay to replace the sheetrock, and he said that’d cost more than installing a drop ceiling. He suggested that instead of replacing the carpet we install ceramic tile, which would cost more than carpet, but be much more durable, particularly if we ever had another leak. He said that’d cost more than reinstalling carpet and they would pay only the cost of the carpet, but that’s what he would do if this were his house. I told him we’d already discussed installing a ceramic tile floor, but the contractor had suggested instead installing plastic laminate fake-wood flooring. He said that was a good choice, and should cost about the same or perhaps a bit less than installing carpet.
I also gave him the pipe sections and fittings that the plumber had left with us. He was very interested in those, and said there’s no way this should have happened in a house built only ten years ago. He said this could work out to our benefit, because they’d make a subrogation claim with the pipe/fitting manufacturers, and any money they recovered from them would go first toward paying our deductible.
So the upshot is that we shouldn’t be much, if any, out of pocket on the repairs. We’re going to have the plastic laminate flooring installed downstairs and live with it for a while. If we like it, instead of refinishing the floors upstairs, which take a real beating from Colin’s claws, we’ll install the plastic laminate up here as well. Barbara is happy with the whole situation, other of course than the upheaval that we’ll be living amidst for the next few weeks.
Barbara made her first supermarket run to the new Grant’s place yesterday. She said she was very happy with it. The place is very clean, both in terms of organization and lack of dirt. The layout is pretty much the same as the old Lowes, and they carry much the same items. She said their prices were comparable.
Based on the flyer that came with last week’s newspaper, the prices look pretty good to me. There were a couple of odd items, though. My favorite was cartons of 18 eggs at ten for $10. Who the hell buys 180 eggs at a time? Well, I might, if I were comfortable dehydrating them myself, which I’m not. I suppose I could dehydrate them and then dry can them in the oven for an hour or two at 450F to sterilize them, but that’s more of a project than I’m ready to undertake at the moment.
Speaking of projects, I just mentioned to Barbara that I’d like to put up some shelf brackets and 1×10’s or 1×12’s in Frances’ and Al’s bedroom closet downstairs. Barbara calls it the water closet, because it currently has something like 500 liters of bottled water stacked in it. I need to measure the heights and widths of our standard containers–#10 cans, 2-liter soft drink bottles, and so forth–to decide how wide the shelves need to be and the optimum vertical spacing.
More work on science kit stuff today.
I would consider vinyl strip flooring rather than laminate. It doesn’t scratch as easily and probably handles getting wet better. They make fake wood as well as colors. About the same price as laminate. We installed it in out house a couple of years ago and it still looks new.
Rick from Portland
Currently on vacation in Machala, Ecuador
He was very interested in those, and said there’s no way this should have happened in a house built only ten years ago.
Ten years ago has the house construction taking place during the real estate bubble in Florida, Arizona, and Las Vegas. Suppliers couldn’t keep up with demand so corners were cut everywhere.
In Florida, IIRC, the insurance companies are still trying to figure out remediation protocol for Chinese drywall imported during the bubble. When we left, the debate was whether razing a house down to the foundation was sufficient to remove the contamination from the toxic chemicals.
Of course, prior to the boom, Tampa had a drywall plant that supplied a lot of Florida, dating back to when I was a kid, but the neighbors forced it closed since the industrial look was “unsightly” in an otherwise gentrifying section of town. We reap what we sow — from what I’ve heard from friends and read in the papers, the flour plant at the Port of Tampa is next.
Got my train and bus tickets for use in Norway. Had to use PayPal to pay for the tickets as their online site would not accept my credit card. I had called the bank and had the card set for foreign transactions from Norway. After a couple of failed attempts I called the bank back and they had no record of denied transactions. I sent a message to the web sites in Norway asking why I could not use my credit card. Their response was they had too much fraud with U.S. credit cards and would not allow them. I can use the cards to purchase tickets when I am in Norway, but not from the online site. But purchasing online before the actual travel date saves a lot of money.
@Ray, I spent a few weeks working in Stavenger Norway, and enjoyed it quite a bit. It is also one of the most expensive cities in the world to do business in…
Breakfast buffet at the hotel was EPIC with at least a dozen breads, and a dozen kinds of fish on offer. In fact, every meal had fish on offer 🙂
It was a few years ago, but some things probably don’t change. Check out a candy store. Especially check out the chocolate and FISH candies. If you like licorice and salt flavors you are in for a treat….
nick
Everything in Norway is expensive, more than the rest of Europe. A reason I saw in a travel documentary is that they have, as a society, decided to overpay what would be minimum wage jobs in the US, and underpay at the top. We’ll see how long that lasts when the oil runs out.
I need to measure the heights and widths of our standard containers–#10 cans, 2-liter soft drink bottles, and so forth–to decide how wide the shelves need to be and the optimum vertical spacing.
This triggered my memory of a major clusterfrack involving shelving. Way back in the early 90’s I was an independent Network (and applications) consultant, coming off a stint building Airline Reservation Systems for Continental Air, and landed a good contract with LA GEAR (fashion sneaker manufacture) in Los Angeles. Their market was taking off and they needed to build two warehouses in Riverside CA near the airport. I was hired by the Warehouse Automation consultant, a friend, to do the in warehouse processing and networking designs, so I was privy to most of the warehouse design meetings. LA GEAR brought in the “experts” from KPMG to create the optimal internal shelving design. The $500 an hr, suits sold them on how good their design teams were and how improved shelving design would increase efficiency etc. etc. etc. Once the contract was signed, the suits left and the just-out-of-school design team arrived. They measured the empty warehouse, the size of the forklifts, and the dimensions of all the shoe boxes the product came in. Then they built cad/cam designs and spreadsheets and delivered blueprints. The racks went up in a couple of weeks and the warehouse build team invited the CEO to see the progress. As part of the dog & pony show they put on, they loaded up a rack with shoe boxes. Each rack space was designed to hold a specific # of the different size boxes. This one space was supposed to hold 10 boxes across. It would only fit 9.5. They frantically tried other combinations and discovered that all racks held 1 fewer boxes than designed. KPMG was called back to explain. It seems their fresh-out-of-school design experts had forgotten to take into account the width of the steel uprights between each rack space. Oops. After the smoke settled, KPMG paid $1+ million for replacing the entire racking, and the costs for late completion of the warehouse. This worked out well for me as LA GEAR extended my contract and hired me to build a Novell based office network at their Santa Monica offices during the 3 month rebuild time. That gave me a chance to meet Michael Jackson when he visited to complete design on a series of sneakers to promote his next album.
@Nick, this will be my third trip to Norway. Will be staying with friends for part of the visit. I do have to spend 5 nights in a hotel but the fiance of our former exchange student works at the hotel and will get us an employee rate, about $100 a night.
Norway is expensive, damned expensive. Will be making three train trips, Olso to Rena, Rena to Sandefjord, and Sandefjord to Oslo. I opted for the senior rate which saves 50% on the cost of the tickets. I am a senior in the U.S., not quite in Norway but I went for it anyway as I also look the part.
Check out a candy store…If you like licorice and salt flavors
Indeed I will and indeed I do. Did not do candy stores on the prior trips. Will have to reconsider that on this trip.
In fact, every meal had fish on offer
I know. I am not a fan of fish but ate as the locals ate. Fish was generally good without the “fishy” flavor. I have eaten reindeer on all three of the visits. The families know I am not a fan of fish and try to accommodate an alternative. The reindeer was quite good.
Have been there in the winter (Dec and Jan) and in the summer (May). Both were wonderful trips.
Next week I have to travel on business. I will be going to the gates of Mordor (as it is called by the Scholar of St. Albans), Bethesda MD. So what should the prudent prepper carry with him? I don’t want to be bogged down hauling too much luggage; one smallish carry on and a backpack. I plan to bring one of my Baofeng UV-82s programmed with the standard emergency frequencies. Of course I’ll have FLASHLIGHTS and batteries. Any suggestions on what other small, real value and useful survival items to bring? I will be travelling by train, not one of those new fangled flying contraptions.
I was there in March, caught the last snowfall of the year on my arrival. Very pretty.
Had whale meat in the cafe as it was in season. Delicious. Actually had two servings. The reindeer I had was tough and dried out from overcooking. I actually got in an argument with a ‘chef’ over the disaster he inflicted on a pork roast one night. Overall though, the food was good with some excellent. Pizza was quite different from here, but tasty.
After 3 weeks in the Radisson Blue, I had enough member points to cash out about $400 US. That was a nice rebate!
I’ve been looking at my Stavenger pics as they have been coming up in my screensaver rotation the last few days.
I wonder if the angry mooslem men that were hanging around in the alley smoking downtown have increased in number or decreased. They were the only men I saw in the whole city who were not working.
n
@jlp,
I’ve detailed my carry on before on these pages…
I take my ‘blowout kit’. It’s a small bag with trauma supplies, designed to provide emergency treatment for a gunshot or stabbing (or serious accident) and have listed the contents here before.
Flashlight, batteries, ‘boo boo’ kit, chargers and drugs. One change of shirt/tshirt/socks/underwear.
MONEY.
And I carry about an oz of gold in small coins, just in case.
Knives are a given.
Keep your phone, flash, and wallet in your pocket. If you have to get off in a hurry, you won’t find your bag.
n
(Power bars and water bottle too.)(and I have a small microfiber towel I can use as a blanket, but I’ve got kids too.)
Added- ball cap and windbreaker jacket stuffed in the bag too
Agree with Mr. Nick on the travel plans and EDC gear. But rather than gold coins I’d carry either genuine silver and/or cash, the latter folded up inside something, like a belt.
I’d also carry a tactical pen, and depending on which states I’m traveling through and to, I’d look into the CCW laws as well and upgrade my self-defense capabilities accordingly. Of course if we ever do get national reciprocity, that will be moot. I carry one knife and a Leatherman Micra (which has come in handy almost daily for YEARS) and a big Leatherman tool on my belt.
I have to carry spare glasses, too. Wife would need spare lenses and “eyeball juice.” Plus her drugs.
You may also want to bring along an interpreter for your MA accent. Peeps in other states seem to find it quite comical.
Any suggestions on what other small, real value and useful survival items to bring?
Anytime we leave town, I have a spare Android device with HERE and/or OsmAnd installed along with enough pre-downloaded state maps to cover where we are going and get home via ground transportation even if flying.
Believe it or not, my favorite device for this purpose is a surplus Fire Phone from EBay. The GPS is awesome and the camera with unlimited cloud upload is worth the minor privacy invasion. I just don’t put a SIM in the phone.
Thanks, Nick. All good ideas and nothing that takes up too much space or weight. I admit to being too busy (and lazy) to do too much searching of old posts today. It is also good to here about new ideas.
Unfortunately, OFD, carrying a gun (that is, if I hadn’t lost all of them at the bottom of the Bungay river) is out of the question. Maryland and DC do not recognize any other state’s license and are quite adamant about it.
Any suggestions on what other small, real value and useful survival items to bring?
REI has a nice all plastic casual looking money belt. I stuff $200 in twenty dollar bills in it. Small gold coins will fit and silver bars or small coins.
I have two Leatherman Charge knives. One is kept in my suitcase with a selection of the extra bits and driver in a leather holster ( along with a selection of gear so I’m ready to go with MrsAtoz). The other is always on my jeans at home.
I told him we’d already discussed installing a ceramic tile floor, but the contractor had suggested instead installing plastic laminate fake-wood flooring.
Have you got a URL for that “plastic laminate fake-wood flooring” ?
I need to replace the horribly stained carpet in the office kitchen.
I had to look up the Bungay River, having never heard of it, despite being BORN in southeastern MA (New Beffa).
“According to published judgments by the Massachusetts Executive Office of Environmental Affairs, the river flows through the best red maple swamp in Massachusetts and provides some of the best canoeing across the state. It and surrounding wetlands are under study as wildlife preservation areas.”
Cool. I love red maples.
Good luck on your trip to the Gates of Mordor, Mr. JLP. If this was a just world, you’d be seeing huge columns of fire and smoke and brimstone in your rear-view mirror upon leaving. And Sauron will have fallen from the sky.
I always have some actual cash in my travel bag, and cash in my wallet, and cash in my ‘throw down’ money clip. If I get ‘jacked, I expect to hand over the clip, and hopefully keep the wallet with all the cards. It’s the same reason I have a couple hundred bucks sitting on my desk- if someone breaks in, I want them to find some money and get out. I don’t want them hanging around, searching thru the house for the ‘good stuff’ or still here when someone comes home.
Depending on your level of prep, and comfort, and feeling that you’ll be fighting your way home overland, there are some other things you can carry. A couple of sticks of “fat wood” makes a good fire starter. We’ve commented before about all the things you can equip yourself with from the average hotel room. If I thought about it, I’d have taken a Lifestraw with me to the Virgin Islands. Lockpicks and an emergency handcuff key might fit your personality, but can also get you in trouble. FWIW, a simple folding knife can get you killed, that was the ‘offense’ that Freddy Grey committed, illegal knife in NYC. I will continue to carry mine anyway… Some gloves wouldn’t hurt if you thought you were walking home. I always dress for a long walk when traveling. You do a lot of it at the airport anyway. Natural fiber outerlayers for flame resistance.
A padlock makes a hell of a brass knuckle…and heavy hand.
Camera monopod can be a club…
Even a frozen water bottle and a sock makes a pretty good weapon if your need is great.
There are lots of things to ‘wargame’ but most useful is money, phone, food, water, clothing, and sharps….
nick
Everything in Norway is expensive, more than the rest of Europe. A reason I saw in a travel documentary is that they have, as a society, decided to overpay what would be minimum wage jobs in the US, and underpay at the top. We’ll see how long that lasts when the oil runs out.
Norway’s oil reservoirs have converted to mostly a wet natural gas due to the extraction of the crude oil over the last three decades. In planning for this, they have built ten LNG liquefaction plants on islands in the upper north sea. Each plant is one bcf/day. There are either two or four more LNG liquefaction plants in the works. I am proud to say that we have been a part of this effort for over a decade now.
“Have you got a URL for that “plastic laminate fake-wood flooring” ?”
No. It’s what the contractor recommended. The local company that carries it is owned by his wife and daughter, and (not strangely for up here) also hosts the DMV license plate renewal place. Barbara went over to look at the stuff and choose a color/pattern. She says they have it installed in the DMV area, where it’s had ten years’ foot traffic and still looks like new.
“I’d have taken a Lifestraw ”
Just don’t buy one if you don’t already have it. I bought a few of those for emergency bags before Sawyer introduced their Mini. The Mini sells for the same price, filters much smaller particles, and has a capacity of something like 100,000 gallons (versus maybe 1,000 for the Lifestraw). I’ve bought nothing but Sawyer Mini’s since. I even got Lori, our mail carrier, one as a de minimus Christmas gift.
That is the beauty of the free market. Lifestraw proves there is a market for the form factor, Sawyer builds a better mousetrap, we benefit.
n
sweet, just won an auction for some kevlar panels
Should I ask the wife before lining her car doors or just do it?
n
I don’t understand what you mean. I have several of each, and the Lifestraw is grossly inferior in EVERY respect, including form factor, to the Sawyer Mini.
“Should I ask the wife before lining her car doors or just do it?”
Just do it.
Oh boy, kevlar panels!
Given the wherewithal (or winning an auction or lottery) I’d line vehicle doors and the seat backs with them, and put ballistic film on all the glass. But if I only had a couple, yeah, do the doors.
So far everything mentioned I have at home (except a money belt, I might stop at a store on the way home) so packing should be easy. I’ll make three piles of stuff: need, want, and if-there’s-room. The final decision will be made by my mood and the news broadcasts at the time I’m packing.
Of course I don’t expect anything bad to happen. The most likely negatives would be short lived and my goal would be stay out of trouble and stay alive until I can get home. That is a lot easier than trying to walk 400 miles in business casual clothing.
As to the Bungay river, it is pronounced bun-gee, with a hard g. I grew up on Bungay Lake, formed by a dam on the river. I had a Sears rowboat with a little Sears motor on it. It was a great place to be a kid. There were old used up quarries to climb around in, lots of woods full of stone walls and old house foundations to explore, and even a grass strip that a few pilots still used. Now I’m getting all nostalgic…..
I just pumped two liters through my Survivor Pro. It says it is rated .01 micron. I keep it in my to go suitcase. I also have a Etekcity .01 micron I put in my backpack.
How to I confirm these two filters are actually .01 micron?
@RBT, I mean that there were hiking and backpacking filters, but the idea of a ‘personal’ emergency filter is relatively new. Size was much less important vs flow rate until Lifestraw came along and proved there was a market for a tiny personal filter that you would keep “just in case.” Before that the market was backpacking/hiking.
If you needed ‘just in case’ or emergency water, you carried the tablets.
n
@ofd, the kevlar panels are part of something cop related, and are about 1.5 feet x 4 ft. I’ve had my eyes out for something like this for some time.
I’ll have to shoot one to see what it actually stops before going to the trouble of installing anything. I’ll probably have to layer them in crossed layers to cover all the seams, so I’ll get less coverage than I would like. I should end up with about 10ft x 4ft of double layer mats that I can then put into something else, like a car door. (If I don’t sell any.)
I actually went online at one of the cop suppliers who makes bolt-in ballistic panels for car doors, but they don’t have panels for my expedition. They certainly wouldn’t have panels for my wife’s honda odyssey.
As far as preps go, this is one of those things that was SOOOOOOOOO far down the list of ‘like to haves’ that I never thought there was a real chance of getting anything. It’s also one of the threats that’s WAAAYYYY down the list.
I think I’ll tell the wife it is sound deadening material…..
n
(the cost was actually way less than sound deadening- about $125 total – I sometimes LOVE auctions)
Should I ask the wife before lining her car doors or just do it?
Asking forgiveness is always better than asking permission.
Are you particular about where you sleep ?
“…It was a great place to be a kid. There were old used up quarries to climb around in, lots of woods full of stone walls and old house foundations to explore…”
Yes. I grew up in Whitinsville (adjacent to “The Badlands” area, still there), Brockton (near many quarries) and Bridgewater (near the Taunton River and spring herring runs, etc.).
“I think I’ll tell the wife it is sound deadening material…..”
Excellent, Smithers!
“Are you particular about where you sleep ?”
And Mr. Lynn wins the innernet for today!
“Who is Publishing NSA and CIA Secrets, and Why?”
https://www.schneier.com/crypto-gram/archives/2017/0515.html#1
“There’s something going on inside the intelligence communities in at least two countries, and we have no idea what it is.”
What is going on here ?
@RBT — So the Sawyer gets the bugs and rocks out, but what do you recommend to get out chemicals?
“EIA: Higher US crude output to cap oil prices through 2018”
http://www.hydrocarbonprocessing.com/news/2017/05/eia-higher-us-crude-output-to-cap-oil-prices-through-2018
“US crude production is expected to rise by more than previously expected in 2017 to 9.31 mMMbpd from 8.87 MMbpd in 2016, a 440,000-bpd increase, the US Energy Information Administration said.”
I am simply amazed.
What is going on here ?
The NSA is subject to the same quota hiring rules as any other branch of the government. I know of at least one who came from my engineering school graduating class.
“Hard Drive Stats for Q1 2017”
https://www.backblaze.com/blog/hard-drive-failure-rates-q1-2017/
I am going to stay with WD drives, the Seagates look scary. But the new HGST drives look interesting.
What is going on here ?
The NSA is subject to the same quota hiring rules as any other branch of the government. I know of at least one who came from my engineering school graduating class.
It is beginning to look like the CIA and the NSA are having a cyber war to take the other out. Not good.
“I am simply amazed”
Why? I’ve been saying for at least 20 years that there’s a planet-wide sea of petroleum with a crust of soil and rock covering it. What do you think happened to millions of years’ accumulation of all those forests, swamps, and other organic matter? Organic matter + heat + pressure + time = petroleum.
Off the top of my head, I’d estimate there’s at least a billion billion billion barrels of petroleum that will be recoverable with technologies that become available over the next few decades. It’s fresh water that’s rare, not oil.
With the oil we can make fresh water.
I am going to stay with WD drives, the Seagates look scary. But the new HGST drives look interesting.
When I doubled my home server from 1 TB to 2 TB recently, the WD Black drive I initially tried ran hot and loud. I replaced it with a Seagate in a similar price/warranty range, and the difference was like night and day.
We’ll see how it goes. The drive is only the second Seagate I’ve purchased over the last decade.
I didn’t try HGST. WD owns them now, but I remember the drives being terrible when Hitachi first bought that product line from IBM.
“Have you got a URL for that “plastic laminate fake-wood flooring” ?”
The Armstrong Flooring website has more variety than is comprehensible. There is laminate flooring and then there is laminate flooring. The usual type specified for residential use edge swells when wetted. I think but cannot say definitely the core is typically some type of treated corrugated cardboard. RBT mentioned that the type he is getting has ground up plastic bottles for a core, so that should be more waterproof.
The near 50 year old Section 8 apartments I managed had Armstrong 12″ square vinyl tiles throughout in the “family” units. It wore like iron but current production is 2x thicker than the original and the pattern selected was a hideous beige / brown consume (sp). There are more attractive patterns today.
When I doubled my home server from 1 TB to 2 TB recently, the WD Black drive I initially tried ran hot and loud. I replaced it with a Seagate in a similar price/warranty range, and the difference was like night and day.
WD Black is all about performance so noise and heat are ignored. I bought over a dozen WD Raptor drives over the years. Those were 10,000 rpm 2.5 inch drives and little screaming pits of heat. The last ones even had huge heat sinks, bigger than the drive, bolted to them. The last of them went to its heat death in the sky years ago.
https://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Velociraptor-10000-Desktop/dp/B003FW9T0M/
I’ll bet that I bought 200 drives over the last 20 years. Maybe 400 drives, who knows.
I didn’t try HGST. WD owns them now, but I remember the drives being terrible when Hitachi first bought that product line from IBM.
We owned some of the IBM Deathstar drives. They were great until the magic pixie dust started coming off the glass platters. Then the failure curve was sudden and catastrophic. The old HD Tune program gave one a little warning if it did not finish off the drive itself.
http://www.hdtune.com/
RBT mentioned that the type he is getting has ground up plastic bottles for a core, so that should be more waterproof.
We had this stuff in an outside deck, two houses ago. It was cool since it did not need repainting ever. The color was weird, kinda purplish, and it felt weird to walk on it barefoot. It was incredibly durable.
There is vinyl tile made to look like planks. The individual tiles are the size and shape of planks, and they are glued down. They can be installed with additional strips between to look like gaps between planks.
I first saw them on an english remodel show, then saw them here in the states in person. They do a great job of looking like plank flooring but wear better, and go down over different subfloors. They are generally considered a commercial grade product.
I can’t imagine any contractor, esp one doing flood repair, that would recommend a traditional “laminate” plank flooring. They look cheap, sound hollow, and swell up with the least bit of moisture. They are usually installed ‘floating’ over a foam layer. The wood grain pattern is a photograph that is printed on some media and ‘laminated’ to a plank made of masonite (brown board made from powdered wood, compressed and heated and glued to make a solid.)
I’ve got ‘engineered lumber’ flooring in my house. It is plywood, with a 1/8″ slice of real hardwood “laminated” to it. It glues down to a solid subfloor. It can even be sanded and refinished ONE time.
Lots of different things called ‘laminate’ that can be used for flooring.
I hope RBT has been recommended some sort of plastic product that is more of a tile than a plank…..
nick
http://floorcritics.com/vinyl-plank/
http://www.homeflooringpros.com/blog-guides/best-laminate-flooring/
http://www.homeflooringpros.com/blog-guides/best-engineered-wood-flooring/
beyond that, you have real hardwood flooring systems.
n
@lynn
That outside deck you’re thinking of was probably Trex, made from recycled plastics and sawdust I believe. It’s had improved in looks over the years as the early stuff was rather ‘purple ugly. Only place I’ve seen it really used is in California state parks. Looks close to wood but much more durable and needs no upkeep.
I used some Trex like product to make my raised beds for the garden.
No rot, easy to cut, durable…
n
That outside deck you’re thinking of was probably Trex, made from recycled plastics and sawdust I believe. It’s had improved in looks over the years as the early stuff was rather ‘purple ugly. Only place I’ve seen it really used is in California state parks. Looks close to wood but much more durable and needs no upkeep.
Cool. That is what I had. Yup, too thick to use inside though.
http://www.trex.com/