apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I've been spending the last day laying tile on my balcony floor. I bought tiles 2 yrs. ago, didn't get enough and then they were discontinued. After a fruitless effort to find identical tiles I gave up and got different tiles. Now I'm trying to figure out how to make both work. Yesterday I put down the new tiles as a border with the older tiles in the center. Today I'm thinking of taking it all up and reversing them. But I still have gaps. I'm SO OVER this problem. I've spent so much money on this project and it still looks like crap.

I bought the new tiles from Costco for $99/box of 20. They're like the DeckTiles.org on the list. They're beautiful and SO EASY to lay.

i saw the west elm tiles on display at the store. they looked horrible... chipped, beat up, etc.

I was just checking out decktiles.org and they mention using them for bathroom flooring. Has anyone has tried this. I think they could look really beautiful but I'm wondering if that is actually functional.

National Wholesale Liquidaters has similar snap-together-wood-deck-tiles. Can't remember the price...but they were cheap cheap cheap.

I have the tiles (Vifah, sold at both decktiles.org and iFloor) in the above photos and they're great! Much nicer than the uneven concrete terrace surface that they replaced, which pooled dirt like crazy. Several of my neighbors who saw them want to get them now too.

The cheapest source for Vifah tiles is actually through their "Buy it now" store on eBay, where they are $99/box; if you're in the NY area they have a warehouse around 45 minutes away in NJ where you can pick up the tiles in person - not such a bad idea since the boxes are fairly heavy and shipping can easily run over $100 through iFloor, for example. Also note that the tiles are NOT easy to cut and you will need a jigsaw to do it properly.

Ikea's are $6.99 each http://www.ikea.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?topcategoryId=17254&catalogId=10103&storeId=12&productId=70212&langId=-1&categoryId=17270&chosenPartNumber=60090639

with a warning:
Wood contains tannic acid which, after a time, can leak out and discolor the sub-floor. Never lay wooden decking on a surface where it would matter if this happened.

I'm moving to a new apartment soon and it has a huge terrace. We are going to lay the plank style tiles to mirror the direction of our wood floors. I can't wait! (for it to be done, not looking forward to the installation) We're ordering directly from Vifah. I emailed the company and got a response directly from the owner. I'll send pictures when we're done!

I'm interested in using a product like this to resurface a deck that gets intense southern exposure. Does anyone know of a Consumer Reports-style, head-to-head comparison of how the various types perform?

Prices seem to vary so widely, and no matter which price point we end up at, it'll cost a pretty penny...I just want to make the best possible choice!

I have the DeckTiles, I found them at a liquidator for cheap. My 10x6 balcony cost about $95 to cover. But.... the plastic connectors don't fit together well leaving gaps and loose tiles, the wood has warped up in many spots, and they have aged quickly. I wouldn't pay a lot of money for these things, but that said, I still like them better than the concrete slab I looked at before.

I considered similar tiles from SwiftDeck (http://www.swiftdeck.com/) for a patio on a rubber roof.
They are $8.95/tile shipping.
I think they are great for a small space, but we need a railing
and had a 20' X 20' space to cover.(we're building a deck)

In any case, if you don't want them to warp or turn grey, you'll have to stain them(which is actually pretty easy).

A few notes on deck tiles; We are deck builders/contractors and have used most of the above mentioned products at one time or another.

Vifah, Ikea, and some others are a good cost alternative but watch out for warped wood, and a deck that wont last very long.

The best product we have seen so far is Eco Decking Tiles we found through a distributor in CA these tile have been installed for over 5 years now with no problems and these guys will cut you the best deal we found.

So yes you can spend $99.00 for a pack of 20 low quality tiles but they wont last long. You are also supporting an illegal lumber industry unfortunatly. The Swiftdeck product seems to be a lower quality copy of the eco decking tiles. If you are going to compromise in quality then get the cheaper Vifah as the cost is way lower.

sorry link is here,

www.thedeckingoutlet.com

I find the above article quite interesting. As an architecture firm in New York City, we have reviewed all the lines of deck tiles including the EzyDeck, SwiftDeck, VIFAH Snapping Deck Tiles, KwikDek, and some others that I can't remember their name at this point; but we finally decide to go with VIFAH Snapping Deck Tiles for multiple projects over the last few years in the city. For many reasons:

1. VIFAH is the only company who can provide us a complete set of documents not only on legal wood sources but also supporting eco-friendly harvesting of forests. This is very important for us, because we have fairly large projects with the size of 20,000 sqft or more; and eco-friendly material is very important to us. VIFAH provides us complete documents on their FSC certification, and their FSC-certified wood sources. Many others claim to us it's eco-friendly material, but they don't have the supporting documents.

2. VIFAH is the only one out there who is truly factory-direct. We personally visit the factory and look at the production as well as their mills. Because our projects are fairly large, we prefer to buy directly from the factory to cut off the middle costs; and it's also much easier to work directly with the factory because they are the most knowledgable people on the product.

3. Brand name. When we looked at this product, VIFAH Snapping Deck Tiles has already established itself as a brand at multiple stores out there including some of the largest building distributors and hardware stores. This gives us the confidence in the product and in our projects.

4. Pricing. VIFAH offers us the great deals - tiles ranging from $1.50 to $4.00 per sqft for various materials (e.g. Ipe, Eucalyptus, Shorea, Teak, Acacia, etc) for various patterns. You can't find this price anywhere else. The only reason that we can have this price with VIFAH, because they are factory direct and cut off all the middle costs.

If you are in the city, and would like to see a couple of projects that we did, please feel free to contact me. We have projects that were installed a couple of years ago, and it still looks perfectly good.

John

Do you do smaller project as well at John Leed architect? I'd be interested to see what you've done but can't find your site on internet.

Sorry John,

Your blog doesnt make much sense, sounds like you may be representing Vifah or selling there product yourself,, You state "you personally visit the mills and factory" are you serious? when have you been to Ho Chi Min City Vietnam. That is where the factory is. As far as longevity of the product, I dont care if is shorea, eucalyptus or whatever, you wont get more than 2-3 years off the deck in NY or anywhere where it rains. I have installed several Vifah decks and they have all had warping issues, one of them warped the day after a hard rain in NC. I hate to say it but this goes for all the posts about cheap deck tile this and cheap that , you get what you pay for and you will have to pay again when the deck goes sour on you. no bitterness here though.

Hi Igorman.

I would suggest you to contact VIFAH Snapping Deck Tile directly to speak with them about the issues you have. We have no problem with them so far. I would suggest you to look at how you install the products and prepare the surface. Getting recommendation from VIFAH directly seems to be the best way.

In fact, we just finalized our 2008 program with VIFAH, and And we will buy more than 2,000,000 (2 million) square feet alone in 2008 for our projects.

In addition to FSC-certified Eucalyptus, plantation-grown Acacia, and certified Shorea, we are also buying Ipe Snapping Deck Tiles from VIFAH. From our experience so far, Ipe is quite overrated in terms of pricing and quality. We find that Acacia tiles are the least expensive one but outperforms all other wood including Ipe. There are a lot of advantages of using Acacia for decking due to its natural characteristics and huge amount of raw materials, while we have a lot of problems with illegal Ipe source before from South America.

I strongly you to look into acacia and eucalyptus as options for larger projects, before they perform very stable for us.

Good luck with your projects.

John

And yes our team visited VIFAH factories in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. They have two manufacturing plants in Vietnam, where we carefully reviewed and approved all standards such as no-child labor, rest area for workers, and fair wages.

Best,
John

Hi John,

I will give Vifah a call as you reccomend but if you are using 2 million sq ft of product with wood deck tiles thart cost $1.50 -$4, these projects must not be very quality and you must be looking to save some serious costs, unfortunatly the homeowners of these projects will be the ones to suffer in say 1-5 years. I am not bashing here only giving my experiences.

Hi Igorman,

We purchase VIFAH Snapping Deck Tiles for a multiple projects, and some of them are very high end hotels and resorts. I have to re-iterate that these are very high-end, luxury projects. There is no question about VIFAH Snapping Deck Tiles, especially if you install it correctly and select the right material for different climate, as different wood reacts differently. We use VIFAH Ipe Tiles in some areas, VIFAH Acacia Tiles in other areas, etc.

VIFAH price is very low, because we are working directly with the factory (through no middleman therefore no middle additional cost). While we were at their factory, we saw that VIFAH has an extremely sufficient production process for the tiles and large inventory of raw materials. I'm convinced that these two reasons significantly reduce the costs.

There may be better products out there; but our firm is very happy with VIFAH products and their factory meets all of our requirements such as safe labor, eco-friendly materials (FSC certified), factory-direct, etc.

Cheers,
John

Hello John,

This is all great news, however we were not able to get FSC certification documentation from Vifah when we asked them for it. There are many out there claiming to be FSC certified, if documents cannot be produced then it is simply a marketing ploy. Also I have never seen or heard of Ipe tiles from Vifah and highly doubt those would be very eco friendly if in fact they are using Ipe. We know of only one wood provider that has genuine FSC certified ipe lumber and that is Earthsourcewood out of San Francisco. They are the only ones we have come across so far that can provide FSC documentation from there Ipe. We have installed several decks with the Vifah product and most of them have not weathered well unfortunatly.

Thanks John and Igorman for your lively discussion on our product. Thank you Apartment Therapy for posting our product pictures on this blog and it was also nice meeting you in person in New York in May 2007.

My name is Duy Huynh; I am the general manager of VIFAH Manufacturing Company and responsible for the deck tile program. I was directed to this website today by one of our customers.

I'd like to clarify a few points on our program. Our company is certified by the FSC organization, and you can verify this with the FSC organization by either checking out their online database of FSC-certified companies or contacting them directly. Katie Miller is a good point of contact.

Katie J. Miller
Forest Stewardship Council
1155 30th St NW
Washington, DC 20007
Phone 202.342.0414
Fax 202.342.6589
Email kmiller@fscus.org
Web www.fscus.org

I don't recall that we ever receive a request from Igorman (maybe a different name or company name) on our FSC certification, but please contact me so that I can provide you all the required information. Normally, only very large projects and very large customers require the FSC certification.

As far as Ipe Deck Tiles, we have been privately manufacturing Ipe Deck Tiles for various customers under various brand names. Our Ipe suppliers are all located in South America. We also privately manufacturing Camaru Deck Tiles and Treated Pine Deck Tiles. All these lines are not publicly offered by VIFAH Manufacturing Company in the U.S. and Canada, but they are available through custom, private-label orders.

I can't also recall if we ever have a customer named Igorman in several projects; maybe under a different name or company. If you do have a problem with installing our products in your projects, please do contact us as soon as you can so that we can better assist you with fixing the problems. If you are under our warranty, we offer 100% hassle-free replacement program, where we pick up the old products and send 100% new products to your site.

I can also give you a few references that you can talk to. We have a few customers who have been using the products for a few years and are still very happy with the products.

More information on our product is at http://www.decktiles.org

If you have any other questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at

Duy Huynh, General Manager

VIFAH Manufacturing Company

U.S. BRANCH:
1375 Broadway, Floor 3, New York, NY 10018, USA
1 212 672 0038 Tel
1 866 213 5328 Fax

FACTORY DIRECT:
1007A Thoai Ngoc Hau Street, Tan Phu District, Ho Chi Minh City, VIETNAM
84 8 861 8868 Tel
84 8 861 7661 Fax

WAREHOUSES:
East Coast: 8 Heller Park Lane, Somerset NJ 08873
West Coast: 5235 West 104th Street, Los Angeles CA 90045

duy@vifah.com
www.vifah.com

Thank you.
Duy Huynh

The fact that a reselling company is certified by an FSC accredited certifier in no way assures that the product is from a certified logging operation. A reseller's certification is called Chain of Custody (COC). COC certified resellers aren't required to sell a stick of certified wood. What one needs to see is the producer certificate. If VIFAH or any other company can't produce it on request than their COC certification should be withdrawn.

I don't know for sure but suspect that VIFAH's ipê is not from certified forests, especially since certified ipê is getting harder to come by (Duy, perhaps you can prove me wrong and produce the producer certificates).

Even if VIFAH's ipê is from FSC-certified producers, this in no way means it's sustainable. The studies are in: the scientific consensus is that commercial logging in old growth rainforests cannot be done sustainably.

Certifiers certify "well managed" forests, not "sustainable" forests. There's a huge difference. Yet the certifiers and the FSC have allowed the misrepresentation to be perpetuated in the media and on the web so that people believe it's the same thing.

Certifiers don't know what "sustainable" is (and can't, until we are around for another thousand years, observing forests that have been producing under a certification scheme for that long). They have arbitrarily decided what "well managed" means (albeit "peer" reviewed) and certify only that. It's critical that people don't confuse the two.

Ipê (and all imported wood originating from old growth tropical forests) should be avoided at all costs, since there's no such thing as an ipê plantation and all ipê is coming from formerly unlogged forests. These trees are 250 to 1000 years old and support perhaps 1500 species of beetles on a single tree.

There are many alternatives to ipê. Our first suggestion is using genuine recycled plastic lumber (RPL) (as opposed to wood-plastic composite lumber, which will rot, warp and split). Offsetting the logging of forests from 5 – 20 times over, RPL can be considered one of the most environmentally friendly products on Earth.

If plastic is not an option, there are a number of domestic second- and third-growth woods out there that are extremely durable. Black locust will last longer than ipê, even trees that are 40 years old. There are lots of black locust fence posts still functioning that were put in the ground untreated more than 70 years ago. Coney Island's ipê has lasted about 25 years.

Contact Rainforest Relief (rainforestrelief.org) to find out more. Robinwood™ black locust decking can be purchased from Bettencourt Green Building Supplies (bettencourtgreenbuildingsupplies.com).

For the forests,
tim keating, director

Hi john_leed_architect ,

Where can you get for $1.50 to $4.00 per sqft? The cheapest I could find is $6. Any help would be greatly apreciated, I need 220 square feet, so it's a big difference in price for me... thanks!

I’m wondering how all these products would compare to a do it yourself custom version. I have a 6’x9’ concrete balcony (in a high rise building in Toronto) and this is the plan I’m currently thinking of, all materials would be from Home Depot or any other hardware store:

- Laying down 2x2 pressure treated pine at 1’ intervals. (I will not attach them to anything, only lay them down)
- Placing either 2x6 or 1x2 deck planks of western red Cedar in the opposite direction, screwed to the 2x2.

I’m not sure if I can get 1x2 planks or if I should just have Home Depot cut the 2x6 to 2x2 for me.
In order to keep the water draining under the deck I will leave a ½â€ space between planks, and I’m also thinking of either having the 2x2 notched from the bottom or just using smaller segments with space in between just so that I’m sure water can move freely in all directions.

So the whole 6’x9’ deck is one piece but it is not attached to anything, just friction and its own weight keeping it down.
I’ve estimated this should cost around $200 which is much less than any of these products, but it is not a reusable module of course.

Any ideas, pros, cons, any potential problems with this?

This is the same post as the previous one but I removed all the symbols that apparently don’t show there:


I’m wondering how all these products would compare to a do it yourself custom version. I have a 6’x9’ concrete balcony (in a high rise building in Toronto) and this is the plan I’m currently thinking of, all materials would be from Home Depot or any other hardware store:

- Laying down 2x2 pressure treated pine at 1’ intervals. (I will not attach them to anything, only lay them down)
- Placing either 2x6 or 1x2 deck planks of western red Cedar in the opposite direction, screwed to the 2x2.

I’m not sure if I can get 1x2 planks or if I should just have Home Depot cut the 2x6 to 2x2 for me.
In order to keep the water draining under the deck I will leave a ½â€ space between planks, and I’m also thinking of either having the 2x2 notched from the bottom or just using smaller segments with space in between just so that I’m sure water can move freely in all directions.

So the whole 6’x9’ deck is one piece but it is not attached to anything, just friction and its own weight keeping it down.
I’ve estimated this should cost around $200 which is much less than any of these products, but it is not a reusable module of course.

Any ideas, pros, cons, any potential problems with this?

I apologize I do not know why these symbols show up, I will try again; if the moderator is there please erase my two previous posts.


I am m wondering how all these products would compare to a do it yourself custom version. I have a 6ft x 9ft concrete balcony (in a high rise building in Toronto) and this is the plan I am m currently thinking of, all materials would be from Home Depot or any other hardware store:

- Laying down 2x2 pressure treated pine at 1ft. intervals. (I will not attach them to anything, only lay them down)
- Placing either 2x6 or 1x2 deck planks of western red Cedar in the opposite direction, screwed to the 2x2.

I am not sure if I can get 1x2 planks or if I should just have Home Depot cut the 2x6 to 2x2 for me.
In order to keep the water draining under the deck I will leave a half inch space between planks, and I am also thinking of either having the 2x2 notched from the bottom or just using smaller segments with space in between just so that I am sure water can move freely in all directions.

So the whole 6ft x 9ft deck is one piece but it is not attached to anything, just friction and its own weight keeping it down.
I’ve estimated this should cost around $200 which is much less than any of these products, but it is not a reusable module of course.

Any ideas, pros, cons, any potential problems with this?

Duy Huynh do you have any resellers in Ontario, Canada?

costco.ca has them on their website for a price that includes shipping

Does anyone know if these (or any other) deck tiles can be used directly on even ground, or can they only be used on concrete, etc. Thanks!

Altruwood in Portland, OR brings in containers of FSC decking, and we have a large supply of Ipe. We also try and encourage lesser known species with the same qualities in order to lessen the strain on Ipe. We have FSC Certified Ipe Decking available in July in both 5/4x6 and 1/6

Colin Wilson
FSC Manager
Altruwood
877.FSC.WOOD

I too am wondering if these can be used directly on the ground.. dirt and/or grass?

I bought some of these tiles from a person who had extra tiles. I used the Vifah 4 slat deck tiles and they looked very good for a week. Many of the peices of wood have warped now and it looks terrible. Also, do not order from Vifah. I needed to order one more box and I ordered from Vifah on the internet. I never received my order and I have not received a refund. Stay away from Vifah and their deck tile product!

I did not realize that Teak was mildew, mold and termite resistant. I am considering using deck tiles made out of teak for my outdoor patio area. It's around 200 Sq. ft. and gets rain on it from time to time. I thing that teak wood floor tiles are beautiful and they feel nice on your feet. I've also heard about curupay and ipe but I don't think I can afford those, as I understand they are a higher end type of wood. I found a few different distributors but it's absolutely essential to get a sample, at least I think so. These deck tiles I found at a few places are definitely the high end type.

Yes.It is true. They are mildew and termite resistant. They last forever and they seem to be one of the best alternatives for a high end hardwood option in creating a hardwood home and beautiful decking and interior design options.

I know that from installing my own deck tiles that they require little or no toxic deck sealent. Which is a great move for the environment; ipe decking tiles were my choice due to their hardness factor and fire repellent rating.