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Trex Commercial Products’ gross margin increased to 26.3% from 18.4% as legacylow-margin contracts rolled off and the Commercial Group drove improvement in overall project execution.
Let me spend a moment on Commercial performance. While improvements have been made, our expectations for increased levels of profitability have not yet been attained. New leadership is in place since the beginning of this year, and we are working closely with the team to drive sales growth and overall profitability.
Trex Commercial has an excellent reputation as a trusted provider of Commercial railing systems for installation in some of the largest and most complex environments. We also have strong relationships with many national architects, developers and installers. These capabilities and relationships are being leveraged to win less extensive projects such as office buildings, residential high-rises, retail complexes and public projects.
We believe there is a greater opportunity to translate the Trex Commercial Products brand, project performance and relationship equity into improved financial results. Additionally, the engineering and design expertise in our commercial area is enabling us to offer new residential railing options that are aesthetically appealing and efficiently produced.
SG&A expenses in the fourth quarter of 2019 were $25 million, compared to $28 million in the fourth quarter of 2018. As a percentage of net sales, SG&A declined to 15.2%. Net income was $35 million, or $0.61 per diluted share, up 41% and 42%, respectively, from $25 million or $0.43 per diluted share reported in the fourth quarter of 2018. EBITDA was up 40% to $49.9 million, while EBITDA margin increased to 30.3% from 25.5%.
Now let me comment on our performance for full-year 2019. Sales were $745 million representing a 9% increase from 2018 and led by a 13% increase in Trex Residential Products sales to $694 million.
Full-year 2019 consolidated gross margin was 41.1% compared to 43.1% in 2018. Trex Residential Products gross margin declined 320 basis points to 42.4%. This margin decline was attributable to certain factors, of which most will not reoccur in 2020.
The primary factor is manufacturing efficiencies associated with the slower-than-anticipated productionramp-up of Enhance decking in the first half of 2019. As discussed earlier, we will also work to remove the material from the Enhance decking back to the original design providing the P&L benefit, due to material reductions.
Recall, this benefit will be weighted to the second half of the year.
Trex Commercial Products net margin expanded 170 basis points to 23.5%. Consolidated SG&A expenses for 2019 were $118 million, flat year-over-year. As a percentage of sales, SG&A declined by 140 basis points to 15.9%.
The significant leverage in SG&A was driven by higher volume in our entry level Enhance product line, which does not carry the same level of branding spend and further spending efficiencies across the organization.
The effective tax rate for 2019 was 23.7%, slightly below the 23.9% of a year ago. Net income for the full year was $145 million or $2.47 per diluted share, representing a year-over-year increase of 8%. Full-year EBITDA was up 5% to $202 million, while EBITDA margin decreased
Trex Company Inc,
Monday, February 24, 2020, 5:00 PM Eastern