Composite Decking is the leading building product used to build decks in America and in many parts of the world. Many composite deck brands also give the appearance of real wood instead of nasty plastic. The appeal of using recycled materials to create an outdoor deck has many builders and homeowners excited and eager to start building right away. However, because composite decking is not real wood, it behaves differently throughout the course of the year.

Heres the first thing you need to know: While hardwood decking expands and contracts on its width due to environmental changes in temperature and moisture levels, composite decking will expand and contract on its length. This is an important distinction to make. Lets just say that if the ends of your composite deck boards butt against your home, you may want to give some breathing room while installing. Not much, of course, but enough to allow the boards to expand and to prevent buckling, warping, and cracking.

Now comes the fun part, installing composite decking. Many builders say that screwing directly through the top of the board is just fine. I couldnt disagree more. Just because composite boards are made of recycled content doesnt mean that theyre cheap. Screwing top down will mean that your finished deck will look decent from far away. And, the closer you get, the more dots aka screw heads youll see. Now the naysayers out there will say that there are composite deck screws that have colored heads that match the decking. Sure enough, theyd be right. However, what those special decking screws or any other brand for that matter cant do is prevent the problems of mushrooming, mold, and decay that this method of deck installation ends up with? Why? Because that method is the one of the causes of those problems!

Lets explore this further. Lets say you rush through your decking installation. Top down screws everywhere! Now, fast forward a few months, a year, maybe two. Theres been a lot of rain, maybe some snow, ice, and a lot of time for water to sit and rest around the heads of each screw. Gravity being what it isat least SOME water will seep into the crevices that arise. Where did these crevices come from? Think about it. Those screws are driven through the deck board into the joist so that your deck board wont move. But, if you remember from above, all types of decking will move. So, with this in mind, the decking moves on its length and the screw…does it stay in place? No, it will move around too. These movements can be incremental, or they can be noticeable right away depending on how well the decking was manufactured and/or the climate you are in. Regardless, the result of water seeping into the screw hole will lead to mold and eventually decay. Two things that will make any deck look horrible and an eyesore.

So, how do you prevent this from occurring? Use hidden deck fasteners tailor made for composite decking. A composite deck fastener will be installed between each board straight down into the joist. You might have to use a biscuit jointer or router to fashion the grooves yourself, or if you bought pre-grooved composite deck boards, all youll have to is lay the board down, straighten it according to your plan, and then install the composite fastener using a screw and drill. Thats it. Simple as pie, not to mention an effective way to make your outdoor garden deck look as good as new for a longer period of time.

A corn pellet stove is one of several types of pellet stoves – kitchen appliances that burn either wood pellets or biomass pellets that are fed into a burning pot. These pellet stoves are used in residential and even industrial sites mostly for heating and sometimes even for cooking. They can be free-standing or they can be inserted onto fireplaces and vented towards a chimney. The use of biomass matter for pellet stoves and heaters came about as a result of the global fuel crisis that necessitated the use of alternative and renewable sources of energy.

Fuel for pellet stoves

Users of pellet stoves utilize cherry pits, sunflower seeds, even wheat as biomass fuel, but a lot of these pellet stoves’ makers opt for the use of another biomass fuel – corn. While wood may be the original choice, and the other seeds and pits additional choices, most pellet stove users swear by corn pellets. Pellet stoves that are specifically made to use corn pellets are becoming more and more in demand because they have been proven to be more fuel efficient and less maintenance-intensive. Although a corn pellet stove looks almost exactly like a wood pellet stove, the former usually does not require a chimney as it is highly efficient. It can simply be vented through pipes to an outer wall. As such, corn pellet stoves may be used to heat almost any room in a house.

How it works – the basics

Like any other pellet stove that has a hopper, auger, blower, firebox, vacuum, and control box, a corn pellet stove feeds the biomass pellets from the hopper through the auger or screw onto the firepot. The auger is used to control the heat. The blower is used for combustion and exhaust as it blows combustion air over the pellets and forces smoke outdoors. The stove mechanisms allow for efficiently clean performance. The intense heat that is produced by the stove is highly concentrated. The convection blower and heat exchangers allow for the circulation of the heated air towards living or cooking spaces.

The use of corn pellets ensure clean, pollution-free burning so that chimneys are no longer required for the corn pellet stove. A vent from the stove towards a window or opening outdoors will suffice. With its highly combustible nature, the use of corn in the pellet stove enables the heating of average-sized homes on less fuel, and less money spent for fuel of course, compared to other traditional and conventional fuels. Like a traditional furnace, a corn pellet stove is combustion-based – burning the corn pellets and warming up the surroundings as heat radiates from the flames. The secret is in the gradual feed of the corn pellets through the hopper, allowing for consistent heat which is not possible if the biomass fuel lot is simply dumped onto the fire. The larger the hopper, the longer the stove is able to continuously burn to provide long-term heating.

Another aspect of the corn pellet stove’s efficiency is the heat-exchanger inside the furnace. The heat exchanger, like that in a gas-furnace, extracts heat from the exhaust. The result is a more efficient heating system that allows for more space areas to be heated for less fuel consumption. It will only be a matter of strategically positioning the corn pellet stove in a residential or industrial structure to get the optimum heat from the contraption. Facility of locating is addressed easily as the stove is simply vented, no need for a chimney, so that smoke exhaust is forced outdoors.