trex vs wood decks

[Blue]

I am going to build a deck and would like to find out which decking material is best for durability and low maintenance. Blue

[Chris]

Check out ipe (pronounced ee-pay) A friend of mine just bought some for a project he was working on (outdoor furniture, not a deck). I know that this stuff if popular for decks and now I know why. It looks great, hard as nails, not too expensive, and is supposed to be more durable than treated lumber. Maybe not as durable as Trex, but not quite as costly either and IMO Trex looks like crap.

-Chris

[Kennor]

[Gfretwell]

This may just ba a sub-tropical observation but the plastics are a lot hotter on bare feet.

[Ramsey]

[Bill]

EON Decking.

An all plastic material which looks great and doesn't turn that "silvery" (read ugly) grey. Easy to install and they have a railing system which is, IMO, the most work when it comes to maintenance. No nail heads, no splinters and it gets no hotter than PT wood in the sun. It's fairly pricey, but I built my deck out of it and would do it again.

-Bill

[peter]

Depends on where you are.

In the rainy Pacific Northwest, people sometimes choose Trex to withstand the dampness. That works but not a whole lot better than pressure-treated wood. On the other hand, in Montana where it is extremely dry, people choose Trex to prevent the distortion dryness causes. In this cast it really performs well. In someplace like Florida or Arizona, you might not like it because the heat is so great it makes the material spongy and is hot to walk on.

Also, deck design sometimes makes a difference. If your deck is so low to the ground that getting air underneath is a problem, Trex might be a good way to go. If you have lots of free-moving air underneath, wood might work better.

So there is no easy answer. You have to focus on exactly what you want it to endure and what kind of maintenance you want to avoid.

Good luck.

Peter

[David L]

Here's what I just had done and I'm very happy with how it came out.

I had the decking and rail caps done in trex, the rail system and the skirting is in cedar and the supports are pressure treated.

This gives me the durability and convenience of trex, but I won't have to worry about splinters or warping of the decking.

From a look standpoint, it pretty much looks like a cedar deck from the side and I don't personally have a problem with the look of the trex decking. But, I think it does look a lot better than an all trex deck would look.

It still was a lot of work to stain the cedar parts, but I probably won't have to do it that often since most of the cedar parts won't have standing water/snow/etc on them.

Also, from a financial standpoint, it was a bit cheaper to do part cedar rather than all trex.

I wasn't sure how it all would come together when the builder suggest this hybrid, but I think it gives me exactly what I was looking for.

I'll be happy to send a couple of pictures via email if anyone is interested.

David