u/skotmerfie

The closest home improvement store to where I live is Menards, so it makes sense to get 90% of what I need from there. Last summer I started a deck building project (composite). I used their online deck planning system, got their itemized list of materials, added a few tools I would need, and had them shipped to my house. The framing all went fine, you can't really screw that up and just follow code. However, once you start doing the fancy stuff everyone sees, there are some glaring issues with the plan and materials they gave me.

1. Composite decking for stairs are too small. They give you standard stair stringers (11.25" depth) which makes perfect sense. But then they give you these radius edge boards for the hidden fastener system. Guess the dimensions of these boards... 5 3/16" Which when you put two down, you would think that would be enough (10 3/8" + a little spacing), but they don't account for the over hang. The cladding they give for the stairs is fairly thin, and I'm left with a massive gap between the treads and the back treads and the cladding. I'm counting the days until I have a mental break after I walk up those stairs for the last time before I decide to rip it all apart. I made a post on a r/Decks asking for help and the best response that made sense was ("yeah, menards plans are bad").

2. Speaking of hidden fasteners for the stair treads... that sounds great and all, but once you get to the bottom 1-3 stairs, it gets harder and harder (if not impossible) to get under there and get things fastened. I went back into my Menards and asked for help and the worker admitted that it's not feasible and to just get color-match screws and do the bottom few stairs from top down (great!).

3. Railing Posts/Sleeves don't fit. They give you this steal pole to top-fasten the rail posts. I kind of like it and it's very sturdy and easy to install. However, the post sleeve they give you is too big for the post. I would say 1/2" or 3/4" space on two of the four sides. I can move the post sleeve significantly and you can imagine how hard it is to keep the post sleeve level with that type of movement. I went in and asked a Menards employee if I was doing it wrong or if the had any suggestions, and they threw me at landscaping adhesive.

I thought the best thing I could do was get all the materials from one place with a deck building system that would ensure everything matched and worked together. Save me time! Right!

Nope, would never use them for a project like this again.