WPC Decking Distribution From Antwerp — Three Languages, One Stockholding

Three Languages, One Stockholding

A distributor in Ghent and a distributor in Liège are selling the same board into the same country and speaking to their customers in different languages. This is the first thing that makes Belgium different to work in, and it is worth settling before the first order rather than at the first technical query.

What comes as it was issued, and what we can prepare

The CE certificate and the Declaration of Performance are issued documents. They come as the notified body issued them, and that is exactly what a specifier or a bureau de contrôle wants to see — an original, not a rendering of one. We send those as they are.

What sits around them is different. The installation guidance, the profile and metre-weight data, the colour and texture codes, and the quotation itself are ours to prepare. Tell us which language your customer actually works in and we will tell you plainly what we can put in it and what stays in English. We would rather agree that at the quotation stage than have you translating a specification sheet at nine in the evening.

Get the terminology agreed once

Most of the technical friction here is vocabulary rather than language. Board width, covered width, support spacing, expansion gap, butt joint, double joist — these need to mean the same thing to your fitter in Flanders and your fitter in Wallonia, because the numbers attached to them are the ones that decide whether the deck is still flat in year three. Agree the terms with us once, in writing, and reuse them. The figures themselves are further down this page.

And say which market the enquiry is for

A Brussels enquiry, a northern-France enquiry and a western-Germany enquiry routed through your Belgian stock are three different conversations about certification and expectation, even though the goods are identical. Tell us which one it is and we answer for that market rather than sending you a generic pack.

Holding European Stock Here: the Batch Problem Nobody Warns You About

This is the part that only bites once the business is working. It is not a defect and it is not specific to us — it is how pigmented extrusion behaves — but in Belgium it plays out differently from anywhere else because of how far one pallet travels.

One batch, four markets, four showrooms

Pigment goes into the extrusion, so two production runs of the same colour will not be identical. On a single national market that is manageable: you sell a batch through, the next batch starts, and nobody puts the two side by side.

From a Belgian distribution base the same colour can be in a showroom in Antwerp, on a terrace in Lille, in a sample box in Luxembourg and on a builder's van in Aachen — all in the same month, and potentially from two different batches. The comparison that never happens nationally happens here routinely.

What to do about it, concretely

Three things, none of them expensive. Buy a colour in one batch rather than topping up — the freight saving on a part-load is smaller than the cost of one disputed job. Keep the sample boards you send out matched to the batch you are actually holding, and replace them when the batch changes. And tell your customer the spares come from their own delivery, not from your shelf next year. We will quote the spares with the job so that is easy to do.

Tell us the reach and we quote the programme

If your Belgian stock serves more than Belgium, say so at the enquiry. It changes how we schedule production — a single run in one batch rather than a convenient split — and it changes the documentation. It does not change the price per square metre, and it removes the most common source of a year-two argument.

Belgium: Route, Transit and Terms

Loading is Nansha or Yantian, both in Guangdong, both within trucking distance of the plant.

The Decking Range

Capped co-extrusion and classic uncapped, hollow and solid. Six of the sections ordered most often — the full schedule runs to well over a hundred.

Co-extrusion 23 × 138

Capped, hollow · 2.85 kg/m

The main capped section. This is the profile our slip test was run on.

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Co-extrusion 23 × 148

Capped, hollow, premium

Wider capped board, four-sided cap. Fewer boards and fewer clips across a large terrace.

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Co-extrusion solid 20 × 140

Capped, solid core

Solid throughout. Specified for commercial traffic and exposed edges.

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3D embossed, round chamber

Deep-grain surface

Heavier embossing than a standard woodgrain, in the capped construction.

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3D embossed, square chamber

Deep-grain surface

Same surface, square-cell core. Lower cost per square metre than the round-chamber section.

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Classic 140 × 25

Uncapped, square chamber

First-generation grade, shown in Walnut. Cost-led work with routine cleaning.

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What the Board Is Made Of

Straight from our own catalogue, with nothing rounded up. These are the figures worth agreeing in all three languages once.

60% wood powder, 30% HDPE, 10% additives

That is the whole recipe, and we would rather publish the additive share than print two numbers that do not add up to a hundred. On the capped range a co-extruded shield wraps a WPC core, and the shield is the wearing layer — it carries the fade and scratch resistance. The material can be recycled and reused at end of life.

Sections and textures

ZSGJ138H23A and ZSGJ138H23C at 138 × 23 mm, ZSGJ138H25 at 138 × 25, ZSGJ140S23 at 140 × 23, ZSGJ140S25 at 140 × 25, ZSGJ145S30 at 145 × 30. Capped surfaces run H1 straight grain and H2, H3 and H5 wood grain; the classic range uses its own codes, so quote the texture with the range. Full schedule with metre weights on the model page — that page is the one to give a fitter who wants the numbers rather than the sales story.

Colours — three ranges

Capped co-extrusion: Teak, Antique, Redwood, IPE, Light-grey, Walnut.
Classic uncapped: Teak, Redwood, Walnut, Coffee, Chocolate, Ebony.
3D embossing: Teak, Red Wood, Walnut, Chocolate, Light Grey, Dark Grey.

Grey is available in the capped range (Antique, Light-grey) and the 3D embossing range (Light Grey, Dark Grey). A colour name belongs to its range — the Walnut in the capped range and the Walnut in the classic range are each their own colour, which is exactly the sort of thing that gets lost in translation across a three-language sales team. Quote the range with the colour.

Installation and Accessories

From our own installation guide. These are the numbers to get agreed once and reused — in whichever language your fitters work in.

The gaps, and the double joist

5–7 mm between the sides of adjacent boards. About 5 mm between a capped board and a wall. 3–5 mm at butt joints where two board ends meet. Butt joints sit on double joists — each board end gets its own joist, never a shared one, and this is the detail most often missed. Set a gutter at the base so water drains rather than ponds.

Accessories, with sizes

Stainless steel start clip, plastic clip, expansion screw, L-shaped corner trim 50 × 50 × 3000 mm, WPC joist 40 × 30 × 3000 mm, aluminium joist 40 × 25 × 2900 mm. Note the aluminium joist is 2900 mm, not 3000 — an easy hundred millimetres to lose when you take off quantities. On the coast, specify A4 / 316 stainless for clips and fixings rather than A2.

The boards do more than the floor

The photograph at the top of this page is worth a second look: the bench is made from the same boards as the deck, and the planter is finished with the same trim. Edge trims, bench slats, cladding boards and fence boards are all in the schedule, which matters for a distributor because it turns one delivery into a whole scheme rather than a floor. Ask for the section list if you are quoting a landscape job rather than a terrace.

Ask About a Specific Profile

Send the section, the volume and the reach

What Owning the Line Gives You

Capacity you can book against

Roughly 2,000 tonnes a month, about 100 containers. For a distributor holding stock for several markets the thing that matters is that a repeat order does not queue behind somebody else's, and that a colour can be run in one batch when you ask for it. Send the volume and the date; we answer with a slot, not a hope.

Dies are ours, so sections are ours

We own the moulds and cut them in-house. That is why the schedule runs past a hundred sections rather than a catalogue page — and why a market-specific profile is a conversation we are ready to have.

A test report with every shipment

Goods are checked before despatch and the report travels with them. Routine, not negotiated — and when one delivery is going to be split across several markets, paperwork that matches the goods is worth more than usual.

Certification: What We Hold, and the Exact Scope

Belgian specifiers and bureaux de contrôle verify, so here is the whole picture including the exact scope — a certificate covering three profiles covers those three profiles. Ask and we send the document itself.

Get the Documents Themselves

Nothing above is a claim you have to take on trust. Tell us which documents your project needs and we will send the PDFs — certificate, Declaration of Performance with the reaction-to-fire class, the laboratory reports, the ISO certificates and the warranty schedule.

Request the certificates and test reports

What We Do for a Distributor

A first order can be well under a container

Minimum order is 70 m². Well under a full container, so a new distributor can test a colour, a profile and our paperwork before committing to a 40HQ. Most suppliers at this end of the market quote 1 × FCL and lose the first conversation.

Samples are free

You pay the courier and we credit it in full against your first order. Ask for a sawn sample: the cut end shows whether the cap runs all the way round the section or stops at the sides. If you run showrooms in more than one region, ask for enough samples that each one is showing the same batch.

A real number within 24 hours

Send the specification and the volume, get a per-unit price rather than a range. We need: profile, colour, quantity in m², discharge port, the markets the stock will serve, and the date it has to be on the ground.

Private label, market-specific sections, testing on your profile

All three are conversations. We own the tooling, we already run sections cut for particular export markets, and where a project needs a test our documents do not cover we will put your profile through the laboratory — fee up front, credited against the order. Every result we send you names the profile it was measured on.

Weather, Briefly

Belgium and the Netherlands are close enough that writing this section twice would be dishonest padding. The short version is here; the long version is on the Dutch page and it applies.

Damp is the operating condition, not an event

From November to March a north-facing terrace barely dries out, and that is where the green film comes from — algae on a permanently damp surface. It sits on the surface rather than in the material, so it washes off, but it appears sooner than clients expect. Fall on the substructure, clear board gaps and a wash twice a year handle it; a flat deck with blocked gaps does not. Tell your customer before they discover it.

Inland, so a slightly wider annual swing than the coast

The Ardennes and the eastern provinces get a colder winter than the coastal strip, and the end gap matters accordingly. Work to the upper end of the ranges where boards are laid cold — about 5 mm to a wall, 3–5 mm at butt joints.

The rest is on the Dutch page

Wind and uplift on exposed or raised decks, soft ground and settlement, and salt air near the coast are all covered in detail on the Netherlands page, and the guidance is the same here. Raised terraces and roof build-ups are on the pedestal system page.

Three Things That Go Wrong When Europeans Import WPC

Not sales copy — these are the three that cost distributors money.

The frame is set out for timber

A joiner spaces joists at whatever timber decking takes, because that is the habit. Composite has a maximum support spacing and it is tighter than timber. Get the figure for your profile in writing and put it on the drawing before the frame goes down. Wrong, and the deck does not collapse — it flexes underfoot permanently, and the fix is lifting the boards.

The end gap gets left out

The most expensive of the three, because a buckled deck is a full relay with no partial fix. The figures are in the installation section above — and the double joist under a butt joint is the half of it people forget.

Batch colour is not matched later

Covered at length further up this page, because from a Belgian distribution base it is the one most likely to find you. One batch, one colour, and the spares go out with the job.

Warranty, and How a Claim Works

Stepped, not flat

Capped co-extrusion carries 15 years, classic uncapped 10. Both step down by year rather than paying full value throughout: 100% of the value of the affected goods in years 1–3, then 80, 70, 50 and 40% through years 4 to 7, then reducing in bands to 10% in the final years. It covers peeling, cracking and overall uneven fading.

It starts at the destination port

Cover runs from the date the goods arrive and are signed for at the port — not our factory gate, and not the day your customer installs them. For a distributor holding stock before it is sold on, that distinction is worth reading twice, and it works in your favour.

Certificates are per batch

The schedule that applies is the one on that batch's certificate, which is why the test report shipping with the goods matters — and why, if one delivery is split across several markets, the paperwork should be split with it. Keep it with the commercial paperwork. If a supplier quotes you a flat 25 years, ask for the schedule.

Talk to Us About Belgium

The full enquiry, if you would rather send everything at once. Tell us the working language and which markets the stock will serve. You will hear back within 24 hours with a real per-unit price.

Distributor and project enquiry

Belgium: Common Questions