Composite and Cedar Decking Over Twenty Years
What this coversThree Materials, Three Failure ModesThe Comparison Nobody CompletesWhat Neither Material FixesFasteners Are a Material Choice TooThe Local DetailMatching the Material to the SiteWhat the Standard Advice MissesThe SummaryDecking material comparisons are almost always framed around warranty length and initial cost, which are the two numbers easiest to obtain and among the least predictive of how a deck will actually be doing in twenty years.A more useful comparison asks a different question: what does each material do as it ages, and what does it need in order to keep doing it? The answers differ more than the marketing suggests, and in a wet marine climate they differ more still.Three Materials, Three Failure ModesComposite decking is a wood-flour and polymer mixture. It does not rot, because the wood content is encapsulated.…
