Anonymous wrote:We have a Trex deck that was built about a year ago and already has mold stains. We definitely regret using Trex.

Our Trex is 10 years old and is nasty. Mold, mildew, the boards swelled together. It;s been this way since year 3 or 4. I'll never use the stuff again.

just get wood. it looks better, is cheaper, and if you clean it and stain it every 3-4 years you are fine.

Anonymous wrote:We also have Azec. I was worried that the plastic would look crummy but it is great. Cleans easily..no splinters..

What are the cons of Azec?

Anonymous wrote:ughh this sucks, I thought that composite / plastic decks are maintenance free. WTF seems as much maintenance, should've just gotten pressure treated and stain.

No exterior material is truly maintenance free. Wood and composites are all subject to mildew and general dirt stains, trex and early composites just show it more. But a wood deck and a trex deck in the same spot will have similar amounts of mildew. The trex (and really all of the composites) are easily cleaned using usually jus water, or a little bit of detergent(never bleach). The corte clean is great, a tad expensive though. For general areas, a few drops of dish detergent in water will get the job done. We have 2 decks - one mostlynshaded tha gets the mildew spots every year, one in full sun that has never had them. Shady deck gets corte clean annually. Sunny deck gets dawn. I have pressure washed both, but regular jet setting on the hose does just as good a job with less water and no chance of damage.

So once a year, 2 hours, and no other maintenance. That is about as maintenance free as it gets.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We used pressure treated wood decking. Cheap and easy to install.

But it requires maintence such as yearly staining. And splinters.

And the chemicals used to treat mean that if you ever replace it you need to taken to a hazmat landfill in some areas. And you shouldn't cook on it. Teak/ipe are great wood choices but incredibly expensive. If i had the money, tha would be my choice.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We used pressure treated wood decking. Cheap and easy to install.

But it requires maintence such as yearly staining. And splinters.

We'll probably stain it in the fall after four summers. No splinters.
We picked wood because I'm cheap but I must say that I have yet to see a non-wood deck material that I've liked.

Has anyone tried the Deck Helmet system? We have a large, two-tiered wood deck that we wash, sand, and stain. We are debating whether to totally replace it with something that is lower maintenance or to try Deck Helmet.