Decks, Patios, Porches and Docks - Material pricing for patio cover

The previous owner built a great patio cover out of pine lumber and 2x2 pine slats. The only problem was that he did not prime the 2x2's before painting. Therefore, all the paint is peeling off the slats.

We want to take off the 2x2's and replace them with something better, but are having trouble finding prices on-line to do a comparison.

We are considering cedar, redwood, and Aluminum (although we don't think that Aluminum looks that good, so we'll only choose that if the cedar or redwood is cost prohibitive). Anybody have any good links for pricing out these kinds of materials.

As a last resort, we even thought about sanding down the existing wood and repainting it, so any comments about that idea would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Kay

Kay, welcome to the forums! It is possible the paint was applied too soon on pressure treated lumber. The moisture inside the pt lumber caused premature release of the paint. Your profile doesn't stipulate where you live, so pricing of materials would be difficult at best to do on the forum. I live in the South, and we are relegated to either pressure treated pine or cedar if you can afford it. My daughter lives in Denver, and redwood and cedar is readily available at competitive prices. We only look at pictures of redwood here. Maybe you could post a couple of pictures on a site such as photobucket.com so we can see what you see.

You should price the materials where you plan to buy them. Buying heavy construction materials online is not practical due to shipping costs. Price them locally and do not overlook the locally owned lumber yards. They have less overhead and usually better quality products than the big box stores. Make a shopping list and go pricing! Good luck with your project.

If you want the 2x2"s white, you might also consider vinyl or plastic, if the spans are not too far.

Mark