by CHS Built | 22/09/2026 | Exterior Trim & Decking
PVC trim and wood trim fail in opposite ways. Wood holds its size in the sun but takes on water at its ends and joints, so paint and detailing decide how long it lasts. Cellular PVC takes on almost no water, but it grows and shrinks with temperature, so fastening and...
by CHS Built | 01/09/2026 | Exterior Trim & Decking
TimberTech vs AZEK is no longer a contest between two companies. AZEK decking is sold today as TimberTech Advanced PVC, so the real choice is between two TimberTech materials: Advanced PVC (the board people still call AZEK), with no wood in it, and TimberTech...
by CHS Built | 18/08/2026 | Exterior Trim & Decking
A Charleston single house is one room wide and two or more stories tall, set with its narrow end to the street and its long side opening onto porches called piazzas. South Carolina Public Radio’s “South Carolina from A to Z” calls it the building...
by CHS Built | 21/07/2026 | Exterior Trim & Decking
On a ground-up home among the live oaks of the sea islands, the scope CHS Built published ran from framing to siding, exterior trim and porches. Look up from a porch like that and the ceiling fills the view. A beadboard porch ceiling works there, as long as the boards...
by CHS Built | 16/06/2026 | Exterior Trim & Decking
Composite decking vs Ipe looks like a choice between two kinds of wood. It is closer to a choice between a natural material you maintain and a manufactured product you install by its label. Ipe is a dense tropical hardwood: real grain, hard underfoot, and it turns...
