I've built with both, but lately only poured, as blocklayers are few and far between. (The home I'm in now combines poured and block construction.) Block walls have far greater compressive strength than poured walls, but have less lateral strength. The biggest negative to block walls used to be waterproofing. But using a Delta type membrane or other exterior waterproofing eliminates that differential. There are a host of technical/workmanship matters with both types of walls that are the builder's responsibility to monitor.

Omigosh, we're babes in the woods here. We've always had redwood decking, but were hoping to find something that doesn't kill trees and is easily maintained for our deck this time. I'll start researching this, and if anyone wants to post us any opinions on what to use it would be appreciated. Our deck is above a walkout basement and is 8 x 20. We hope this will be our last home, and would like something easy to maintain. Have only looked at Trex and HD; don't like the look, but what we thought was reputed to be a good quality material and ease of maintence sold us. Thank you for any thoughts on this. Susanka

DID I FIND THE SOLUTION??? My 10 month old TREX deck is loaded with black dots of (mold??). After reading the years of accumulated forum comments,I decided to try something off the wall. I cut the top of a lemon and squeezed the juice over a 6x6 inch area. I spread it around with my fingers. It sat for ten minutes and then I scrubbed the area with a stiff hand brush. After 10 minutes more, I scrubbed the area with a few drops of kitchen detergent/soap. I rinsed with water from a bottle and PRESTO!!! The entire area is spot free, exactly like new. I intend to buy some citric acid in crystal or powder form to attempt to duplicate my experience. I will post the results ASAP

we've just had a screen porch built with azek tongue and groove, and a deck above it with azek decking. i do not love the azek tongue and groove. its shifts and sounds like squeaking plastic if you walk on it barefoot. (shoes masks the sound, but this is really semi-indoor living space, so bare feet are the usual way we're walking on it.) in the past we had a fir tongue and groove screen porch ( a previous house) that was painted with porch paint and held up very well. i'm sorry we didnt go with fir again but we were going to be all modern and get with the azek program etc. i'm sorry i didnt walk on one barefoot before we went this route. i can't comment on pine. the azek decking is good, if thats a choice for you rather than tongue and groove, do that. one last thing about azek, water beads up on it and takes longer to dry. we bought a long handled large squeegie for the top deck because we tend to get really heavy dew overnight near the ocean. azek tongue and groove... no spaces between planks azek decking...spaced planks over sleepers and a rubber membrane.