I’ve seen a number of web sites that recommend placing tiles on your decking as a way to protect the decking from the radiant heat of a fire pit. It makes sense because tiles are fire proof. The question is how well does this solution work in real life? To find out, I did some testing of my own. I chose a fire pit that burns hotter than many. My test results might have been different if I had used a much different type of fire pit for the test. Under the center of the test area, I placed three different types of decking planks: Pressure-Treated Decking Wood, TimberTech Capped Composite, and Fiberon Paramount PVC. Heat under a fire pit will be most intense under the center of the fire bowl. The TimberTech capped composite was under the center. The Pressure Treated wood and the PVC decking were on either side. However, all three did go under the center of the fire pit.
