Plastic lumber is a top-shelf building material for outdoor furniture, which is often exposed to sun, rain, and even severe weather. You can make durable picnic tables, Adirondack chairs, and just about any other kind of outdoor furniture out of plastic lumber from Haven Dock & Marine.
Plastic lumber is a plastic form of lumber made of virgin or recycled plastic. It is mostly made of plastic and binders such as fiberglass or rebar; not to be confused with wood-plastic composite lumber. Widely employed in outdoor decking, it is also used for molding and trim and garden furniture such as park benches. Resistant to cracking and splitting when appropriately installed, plastic lumber can be molded with or without simulated wood grain details. Even with a wood grain design, plastic lumber is still easy to distinguish visually from natural timber: the grains are the same uniform color as the rest of the material.
Manufacturers claim plastic lumber is more environmentally-friendly and requires less maintenance than wood/plastic composites or rot-resistant wood.[1] Commercially available polyvinyl chloride fiberglass composite lumber sold for decking meets stringent fire code standards.[2] Because plastic lumber can displace wood timber (as harvested by forestry), it can be a carbon negative and a carbon capture and utilization technology.[3]
Plastic lumber is composed of virgin or waste plastics including HDPE, PVC, PP, ABS, PS and PLA. The powder or pellets are mixed to a dough-like consistency at roughly 400 ÂF (204 ÂC) and then extruded or molded to the desired shape. Additives such as colorants, coupling agents, stabilizers, blowing agents, reinforcing agents, foaming agents, and lubricants help tailor the end product to the target application. The material is formed into both solid and hollow profiles or into injection molded parts and products.
Plastic lumber can be molded to meet almost any desired spatial condition, a major advantage over wood. It can also be bent and fixed to form strong arching curves. Plastic lumber works like wood - it can be shaped, drilled, and cut using conventional woodworking tools. At the same time, it is waterproof and resists all types of rot and mold, although it is not as rigid as wood and may slightly deform in extremely hot weather. Plastic lumber is not sensitive to staining from a variety of agents. A major selling point of this material is it doesn't need to be painted and is overall low-maintenance. It is manufactured in a variety of colors, and is widely available in grays and earth tones.
While the compressive properties of plastic lumber are equal or greater than those of wood, the modulus of elasticity is very low. Moreover, plastic lumber is subject to far more creep than wood.[4] Use in load-bearing structures requires different considerations from wood.[4]
Some plastic lumber, such as commercially available polyvinyl chloride plastic decking fiberglass composite lumber, outperformed composite wood plyetheline composite lumbers in fire safety performance.[2] Plastic lumber also deforms easily at high temperature; planning for the event of fire needs to take this into account.[4]
Unlimited uses for plastic lumber including decks, docks, park furnishings (benches, adirondack chairs, picnic tables, planters, trash receptacles), playgrounds, fencing, commercial applications (pallets), construction, concrete forming, marine, seawalls, bleachers, boardwalks + so much more! The ideas can be endless.
This report presents an evaluation of the recycled plastic materials (RPM) produced by California Recycling Company (CRC). This evaluation is performed under the Municipal Waste Innovative Technology Evaluation (MITE) Program of the U.S. EPA, Risk Reduction Engineering Laboratory. The lumber is produced from difficult-to-market post consumer plastic materials which have been recovered from a mixed municipal solid waste stream at CR Transfer's New Stanton material recovery facility (MRF). R.W. Beck and Associates assessed the composition of the plastic made into plastic lumber. The material was transported to CRC, Los Angeles, where it was formed into 2" x 6" by 12' dimensional plastic lumber at mixtures ranging from 100% commingled plastic to 50% commingled blended with 50% industrial regrind plastic. Battery of tests was performed on the RPM to determine strength, creep, serviceability, biological compatibility, and toxicity of the plastic lumber. These tests were selected to characterize the behavior of the material for marine application. The findings show that the plastic lumber produced by CRC has significant creep characteristics which must be adequately addressed by appropriate architectural design when using this material. Flexural stiffness properties are less than 1/10 that of wood. Biological testing has indicated a far lower toxicity for the plastic than for chromium copper arsenate (CCA) treated wood.
If you want to build a new deck or replace a current one, it's important to consider all of the materials you could use to construct it. Some of the most popular options available include pressure-treated softwoods, plastic lumber and wood plastic composite lumber, which all come with different advantages and disadvantages that could help guide your decision. Here, we'll break down the differences between plastic lumber and wood plastic composite lumber for decking. While they may sound essentially the same, they actually have several important distinctions!
Plastic lumber can be made from many different virgin or waste plastics, most commonly polyvinyl chloride (PVC), high-density polyethylene (HDPE), acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) and Polypropylene (PP). It is 100% composed of plastic and is, therefore, 100% recyclable when the time comes to replace it. Certain kinds of plastic lumber, in particular PVC decking (also known as synthetic decking), can be "capped," or covered with a protective shell to reinforce its durability and make it look a bit more like real wood. It generally has the same density as popular softwoods like white pine and is quite lightweight, making it easier to work with than heavy planks of wood.
As the name suggests, wood plastic composite lumber is made of a mixture of wood fibers and plastic materials. Composite decking is usually heavier than PVC decking, but lighter than traditional wood. While it can be made of sawdust and recycled plastic materials, composite decking itself isn't usually recyclable. Because of its blend of wood and plastic, it often looks more like real wood than pure plastic lumber, especially from a distance. Like plastic lumber, it can be capped with an extra shell of protective coating to make it last even longer.
We've barely scratched the surface of how plastic and wood plastic composite lumber can be used in construction. To learn more about these materials and the many other ways that plastic contributes to the wood processing industry every day, check out more of the resources available here at A&C Plastics.
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