Technical Information

About The Board

This is our Chocolate Brown commercial-grade composite deck board, suitable for both domestic gardens and heavier commercial use. It’s a reversible board, so you get two looks from one product. The Woodsman+ side has a deep embossed wood grain, which is by far the more popular choice with this colour, since the grain pattern works with the warmth of the brown to give a properly timber-like finish. The Active+ side on the reverse has a more conventional groove pattern, which is sometimes specified for commercial walkways and pool surrounds where a more uniform look is wanted.

The board is made from 60% recycled wood fibre and 40% plastic polymer. UV stabilisers and anti-mildew additives are mixed through the board itself, not just applied as a surface coating, which is what you’d expect from a quality uncapped product.

Board Sizes & Weights

• Length: 2200mm
• Width: 150mm
• Depth: 25mm
• Weight: roughly 5.72kg per board
• Coverage: 0.33m² per board

We’re often asked why we don’t supply 3.6m or 4m lengths like some suppliers. The short answer is that 2.2m is the right length for a stable, properly engineered board. We’ve written about that in more detail here.

How It Performs

Wear and tear: Because the board is uncapped with full-body colour running right through, scratches from garden furniture, dog claws or dragged BBQs can be sanded out without leaving a visible mark. Capped boards don’t give you that option. Once the cap’s damaged, the damage shows. With brown boards in particular, a scratch on a capped product can show a noticeably different colour underneath, which is the last thing you want on what’s meant to look like a wood-tone deck.

Weathering: New boards lighten and soften slightly over the first 4 to 6 weeks as they reach their true colour. With Chocolate, this works in your favour. The boards arrive with quite a rich chocolate tone, and the settled colour tends to be a slightly more weathered, mellower brown that looks more like seasoned timber. After that the UV stabilisers hold the colour and you won’t see further fading.

Heat: Worth being honest about this. Brown boards sit somewhere in the middle of our range for heat retention in direct sun. They warm up more than Stone Grey but less than Charcoal. For most installations this is a non-issue, but if the deck is going somewhere it gets full afternoon sun and bare feet are guaranteed in summer, it’s worth thinking about.

Underfoot: The textured surface gives genuine grip in the wet, which is the same across all our colours.

Looking after it: No staining, no sealing, no annual treatment, which is the main reason customers move to composite from timber decking in the first place. A brush down and a wash with warm soapy water once or twice a year is all it needs. Chocolate hides general garden dirt and pollen reasonably well, sitting between the lighter greys and Charcoal in that respect.

Fitting

For most domestic decks we recommend allowing 10% wastage. If your deck is a simple square or rectangle with no awkward cuts, you can usually get away with 5%. For anything with curves, mitres or multiple changes of direction, allow 15%.

The boards work with all our clip systems:

• X-Clips are our preferred fixing for a tight 3 to 4mm joint, and the right choice for vertical risers under step nosing or when cladding.
• Stainless steel T-clips are the standard hidden fixing for the main deck area.
• Plastic T-clips are a budget option for domestic jobs.
• Starter clips are for the first board against a wall or edge.

If you’re new to fitting composite, our Decking Kits come with the right ratio of boards, clips and screws already worked out, which saves the head-scratching.

Where It’s Used

We supply Chocolate Brown for everything from country gardens and cottage installations to log cabin terraces, garden room surrounds, holiday lodges and rural pub gardens. It’s also a popular choice for customers who want to replace an old timber deck with composite but don’t want to lose the warm wood-tone look. The 15-year guarantee applies whether it’s a domestic deck or a commercial one. We don’t have separate warranty terms for trade jobs.

Warranty

Every board carries our 15-year guarantee. If you have a question about the warranty or want to talk through a project before ordering, give us a ring on 01803 313211 or drop us an email at sales@toughdecking.co.uk. You’ll get someone who actually knows the product.