ckerr007 - Thanks for the update. I'm looking at the Fiberon IPE right now for my new house. Will be 14x14 covered deck.

Ckerr007- Thanks for the update. We are just deciding between Fiberon Horizons and timber tech legacy.

This is a great thread. Hard to find these on the web. I too am debating composite or real wood decking. From scanning the web and these posts above, Trex is of my list. I now have some interest in the Fiberon Horizon line. If anyone here has past or current experience to share wood be great. Yes this is kind of a bump. Cheers.

People must have given up on this thread. It is really hard to find info that isn't from the company themselves. I am replacing a composite deck that has gone bad. It is Evergrain from Tamko. They did give me money but only 65% of what I paid but I have not received the check and hope that it can be used towards a different brand. I am really looking at Trex or Fiberon if it works.

As we speak 08/04/2016 my deck guy is installing the Fiberon Horizon Symmetry line of product. I have met with Brian, our Florida rep who has done an outstanding job of providing info, free samples and help ordering the correct amount of product. Plus I think they are the only company that has a total wrap around their product compared to Trex which only wraps one side of their board.

Plus the Symmetry line is very close to mimicking a natural wood pattern.

I've read so many bad things about Trex I would never use them. The only problem with a proper review is the time needed to see how the product holds up over the years.

I'll try and post a photo up here when its done. Gonna be beautiful.

I'll be waiting to see it. Please post as soon as you can. I am curious what your deck is like. Thanks.

Just chiming in...here's a close up of the grain detail for the new Fiberon Symmetry decking that Mike mentions. We recommend getting samples (no matter which brand you select) before making your decision. This way you can get a sense of how the board will perform, how well it cleans up, and how it feels under foot.

And glad to hear that Brian in FL has been helpful! I will pass that compliment along. Thank you!

Fiberon Symmetry Decking Collection - Warm Sienna · More Info

Fiberon Symmetry Decking Collection - Burnt Umber · More Info

Fiberon Symmetry Decking Collection - Cinnabar · More Info

Well Jon my carpenter just finished the install. This photo doesnt do the deck justice. I need to take a shot under the right lighting conditions but. . . .The deck is marvelous. I'll be 6 feet under by the time this stuff starts to weather.

OK folks

As every relationship starts off where the company promises everything and answers every pre purchase question, in time we all expose ourselves and the truth.

After purchasing the Fiberon Horizon material for a large deck, Fiberon has stopped answering my emails about purchase/product issues.

My business partner was going to have her deck redone with Fiberon Horizon but I mentioned to her that she should hold off and consider alternatives.

Really the company is just as important as the material. The way my post purchase experience has been indicates I wont be receiving any warranty assistance if or when the time comes.

I was hoping to be posting a second finished deck with this product but it aint gonna happen.

Just posting my experience so far. Cheers

Mike

This what I found years ago, Mike. In my research, the so-called warranties these companies put on their products is ambiguous at best. Most don't honor them at all and there are thousands of problems listed all over the net. Fiberon, was one of the better ones, but that's not saying much. That's why I designed my own and went with the granite and steel design I pictured in my original post on this thread over 3 years ago. It still looks like I built it last week and everyone says it's the most unique deck they've ever seen. You could also park a truck on it. I did register a company name and website, but have yet to really pursue the venture because of existing responsibilities. If you're interested, you can see it at NewDeckColorado.com. ; Not an advertisement, just a reference. I did just close a different company I ran for 21 years, but would like to do a few in Colorado before I branched out of state anyway, if I decide to pursue this. let me know what you think.

oops, I Tried to follow the link and as it turns out, something called my SSL certificate was not renewed(I'm not much of a website guy); so give me a few days before pressing on the link, as it is pending now.

Reviving this thread :) Deciding between Trex Transcend and Fiberon Horizon Ipe. Anyone have experience with these installed for some time now?

I still haven't purchased any replacements yet since all of mine is falling apart. I'm kind of scared and just doing a lot of research. I don't even know if I'll replace with composite. May lower the deck and go stamped concrete.

Well here's an update from me and my install. Fiberon emailed me months ago about returning the extra material. They said they would make arrangements to pick it up and refund me. I have all this in saved emails. After emailing back and forth and even getting the East Coast rep involved, they never followed thru. My deck has also developed a white stain on it that won't come off. I've been blacklisted from the company as they refuse to help.

This whole experience was really an eye opener cause Fiberon was so responsive before the purchase. I cant imagine the other companies being more irresponsible than Fiberon but I've learned. . .anything is possible. I think if I have to redo it in the future I'll do PT. It's just not worth it.

Good idea Scott. Go with concrete.

Good luck to anyone else thinking of taking the black hole plunge.

I bumped this thread in October 2015, I had the Fiberon Horizons Ipe (distributed at the time by CertainTeed under the name "Evernew PT") installed for my front porch/deck in around 2012. I'll try to post a picture later but it has been great so far, no warping, separating, or problem mold/mildew and the color is holding very well. I'm sorry to hear about the recent problems others have had with Fiberon. Again, what I bought was under a then-partnership with CertainTeed and I dealt with a local installer. As far as the product itself though, I'm very pleased and would do it again in a heartbeat to avoid all the maintenance that goes along with the alternatives like wood, pavers, etc.

I bumped this thread in October 2015, I had the Fiberon Horizons Ipe (distributed at the time by CertainTeed under the name "Evernew PT") installed for my front porch/deck in around 2012. I'll try to post a picture later but it has been great so far, no warping, separating, or problem mold/mildew and the color is holding very well. I'm sorry to hear about the recent problems others have had with Fiberon. Again, what I bought was under a then-partnership with CertainTeed and I dealt with a local installer. As far as the product itself though, I'm very pleased and would do it again in a heartbeat to avoid all the maintenance that goes along with the alternatives like wood, pavers, etc.

I visited a few local lumberyards, each with either a display of Trex Transcend, Timbertech Legacy, and/or Horizon Ipe. We have little feet running around, and what I really don't want is a slippery deck. The Trex and TimberTech were close, but the Fiberon Horizons was, to me, very slippery. This was a completely SUBjective test - I stood on all 3 with the same pair of shoes, and "twisted" my body by throwing my arms around. My feet, on the Fiberon, slipped around without difficulty. TimberTech was less slippy, Trex Transcend was the least slippy. Walking around on the 3 decks I felt the same thing. Now, though, if you want super not-sticky, go with Fiberon PVC line (can't remember the name) - it felt like I was walking on duct tape. The lumberyards have never heard of issues from slippery Fiberon Horizons, but to me, personally, it was a bit too slippery. Looked great though!! I'll likely go with Trex Transcend, and make sure I have at least 12" of vertical air gap between grade and the bottom of the beams.

Sorry for the double post.

After 5 years, my deck still looks brand new. It has zero slip, zero fade, and zero warp. Its cooler to stand on than any composite, too. Friends that visit are still amazed, and I still have the occasional person that drives by, knock on my door and ask me about it. There's literally nothing like it out there. The sun exposure is still strong, if not stronger, and the subsequent UV is still high, especially at 6250' in elevation. But this is why I think some on this site are fine with their composite decks, and some have nightmares; the weather. I know by now, any composite at my location would have warped, if not turned to dust by now; and their "Warranties" useless. I have already seen neighbors replace composites installed after I put my deck up. However, my life has taken a different direction and I'm not pursuing a deck business any longer. Besides, it was so different, it was just too hard to explain and I never had the time to market it correctly. I thought about getting a patent, but it's just too expensive. My partner is still a Commercial GC, but he's neck deep in projects. We were looking for a deck guy to take 33% and run with it, but i just don't have the time and neither does my partner; although he still thinks about it. I'm guessing he won't want to pursue it; so I'm probably going to take the site down before my June/July renew date this year.

BTW; because people keep checking into this thread for long term effects and warranties, I would not take it down. I could see this thread going for decades; then we'd have a true test of time.

So, where can I get this stuff????????????

I bumped this thread in October 2015 to pay back all the advice (particularly about landscaping) I've received from participants on this site. I had the Fiberon Horizons Ipe (distributed at the time by CertainTeed under the name "Evernew PT") installed for my front porch/deck about 5 or 6 years ago. Here are my promised photos after we finally gave it a past due cleaning. We have a lot of pine trees so every couple years it is necessary to clean out the cracks and brush it down with dish soap. Again, I'm very happy with the product and it is holding up very well. I can't speak to warranty issues because I haven't had any problems, and fingers crossed I won't for the next 15 years. There is a faint scratch you can see on the upper right side of the 3rd close-up photo. This is the only "damage" after 5+ years and not visible unless you know where to look.

Thanks ckerr007, this is very helpful! Curious, have you noticed the Fiberon Ipe as slippery at all, rainy or not?

I don't have any basis to compare slipperiness (is that a word?), it looks like you did a side-by-side test. So you have a better basis to compare and decide whether the Fiberon is "too slippery" for you relative to others. I can say that neither I nor anyone else I know of has ever slipped and fallen on this porch. If it's wet from watering hanging baskets or a rain I will slip a little, particularly stepping off an end where there aren't steps onto the ground. But again, nothing where I've fallen and under normal use this hasn't been an issue for me.

Bumping this to see if peakcelln would mind sharing his design idea since I'm in CO as well

Our deck is Fiberon Horizon - installed 5+ years ago and so far it has held up really well. Our front porch s piine and has rotted and we want to replace it with Fiberon.

For what it's worth, a few years ago my BIL had fading problems with his Timbertech decking which turned out to be a manufacturing defect. The company shipped him all new decking and paid to have it replaced. So although the early failure was not good, it's encouraging that they stood behind the product in this way.

Timbertech seems to have a solid reputation for taking care of folks in the couple of cases that I have anecdotally heard of so that is good. Fiberon is also quite good so there are plenty of good choices out there in the marketplace.

I just ordered Fiberon Horizon IPE and its terrible. Every board I received is bent, twisted or crowned. Makes it impossible to get a nice, clean installation. Its so bad that im debating on taking a loss and just ordering Trex. The board itself looks ok compared to Trex, but holding the samples in my hand the fiberon seems to be of lesser quality.

You can't return it?

No. Its special order.

Id burn it if I could.

I understand special order, but when you are sent crappy stuff, you have a right to return it.

Can anyone speak to the temperature of composite decking, particularly Fiberon Horizon IPE? I am concerned about my deck being too hot for bare feet.

The PVC are going to get super hot in warmer climates and more so if you go with the darker color ranges.

We are trying right now to decide between Fiberon Horizon and Timbertech Legacy. Any thoughts ? Has anyone noticed a difference between the Fiberon Horizon and the Fiberon Symmetry as far as durability?

Hi Tina - We have a very generous warranty for both our Horizon and Symmetry decking. you can view them at https://www.fiberondecking.com/professionals/warranty-information. Just a note to make sure that your installer follows the directions carefully as most warranty issues we see come from improper ventilation or spacing. Hope this helps! If you have questions, feel free to reach out to our corporate office at 1-800-573-8841 or info@fiberondecking.com.

Hi Fiberon, I hope your warranty is better than our previous brand. We had decking for 5 years and it started deteriorating. I thought it may go away but it just kept getting worse. I should have turned in a claim sooner, but I waited and turned it in at about 7 years when we just could not live with it anymore. Something that was supposed to last a long time was now going to be torn out in 7 years. And as you know, composite decking is not cheap. We only got a 60% refund on our purchase price which now is going to cost a lot more to replace. So the cost for a new deck will be over 140% more than when we put it in. Not cool.

Hi Scott, If you want to talk with someone about our product and warranty at the corporate level, please feel free to reach out to our office at 1-800-573-8841 or info@fiberondecking.com. We are always happy to answer questions and make sure customers understand and are happy with our products!

Hi, I am so glad we found this thread. Thank you to everyone who has commented.

We live in Utah and we are trying to decide between Fiberon and Elevated steel & Granite. We are at approx 6500 Elevation and get very rapid changes in weather, We are DONE with replacing wood due to UV and crazy levels of snow. Any extra tips or ideas are much appreciated. We went to both Lowes and Home Depot today and they were all to busy to help us and asked us to go to their websites. So I would prefer to shop elsewhere since the thousands of dollars means very little to them. What is the approximate cost for Elevated Steel & Granite?

It depends on whether you do it yourself, or hire someone. I did mine myself, but had the help of a commercial GC friend, whom guided me and lent me some of his journeymen for framing and the railing. The rest I did myself. Since I do not think anyone had done what I did, before I did it in 2012, I don't know if there are any deck companies that specialize in it now. Building it was a mix between deck building fundamentals and commercial steel fundamentals.

You are right about the UV and temperature change. I'm at 6250', gave up on wood, and hated what the UV did to the Trex and Fiberon here. This is why I designed what I did. I have more info on this a few years back.

ddgdl; Sorry just saw your request.

This deck took me years to design. I had to get an engineers stamp and, because this was so new, there were more red lines(Changes) on it than black. It took me a year to research and plan, and another year to build; mostly because I did it myself and on my off time.

Ideally, I would like a deck company to make me a 5-10% silent partner, and then I will show them everything they need to know. What to do and what not to do, and where/what supplies you need.

I'm not trying to be greedy, and hope this doesn't come off like that. it's just that there was so much trial, error, heartache, and then ultimately joy; i'd like to have some skin in the game to share what I learned the hard way.

Bad personal experience with Fiberon's Phantom hidden fastener system. The gap is nearly 3/8" and all your eye fixates on is the huge gap and the clearly visible fasteners; not the decking itself. Called their customer service 10 minutes before they closed and got put on hold until they were officially closed and the phone was disconnected. Would never have bought their decking had I known the fastener system was so clunky and unrefined. There is an online video using the same Fiberon decking and fasteners showing almost no gap at all. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztLpI_VWMKI I have a video of mine and after hours of trying to make it work and getting hung up on, I'm taking it all back to Home Depot.

Caveat emptor.

I just want to say I used plastic lumber on a large deck in MD 22 years ago and it still looks brand new. It was called Care Free at the time but has since been sold. I have now down sized and need to replace a small rotted wood roof deck on a condo and I think I am choosing Fiberon purely based on cost savings and availability during COVID but I LOVED my plastic lumber deck. It was light grey with white railings. Maintenance was power washing in the spring but just because I wanted it totally clean. never stained or faded. Its a lot lighter than composite as well and durable. (It does get hot in the sun so lighter the color the better) The only thing I would say is make sure you have a contractor very familiar with it because it does expand and contract with extreme weather. We never had a problem because it was built correctly.

WOW!!! So much information. Many thanks to all who have contributed. SUCH mixed reviews - it's hard to decide, but I appreciate all the input. We live in North Carolina where the heat and humidity can be BRUTAL. We're leaning towards Fiberon's Concordia Horizon or Concordia Symmetry. The warping issues make me nervous, and our contractor has seen the gamut of good and bad in this regard. He had us look at Fiberon, Timbertech, and Envision as well as Thermally Modified Ash. I'll follow up when our project is done, and I'll let you knw what we decided. If anyone has any intel - LET US KNOW! Especially if you live in the south ;)

Which is the better product for heat resistance?

My granite & steel invention;)

I very much recommend AGAINST Fiberon decking. We just got it installed. We chose it in autumn, it was installed in late winter/early spring, and this is the first summer with it. We’re in Canada, and the material gets so hot in the sun that you risk a serious burn if you try to walk on it in bare feet. It’s hotter than blacktop asphalt. Our dog used to love laying out on our old cedar deck all afternoon, and now she can’t, because to walk on it would burn her paws. Seriously, this stuff is not fit for the purpose it’s being sold for. Buy literally anything else.

We have a Fiberon Horizon deck built in Fall 2018. This summer 2022 will be its fourth. Our deck gets morning sun and late afternoon shade. We live in the Colorado foothills at 7600' elevation with big snow loads in winter, strong UV in the summer, and incredible 40- to 50-degree temperature swings in spring and fall. We chose steel framing, which helps the decking to lay nice and flat. When deciding which decking to purchase, I laid out on our existing wood deck a sample of redwood plus about 7 samples of composite and PVC decking from different manufacturers for about 2 weeks. Some definitely got hotter than others, but the Fiberon Horizon was only very slightly hotter than the existing wood deck. If I needed something on my feet to walk on the hot Fiberon decking, I would also have needed it to walk on the hot wood decking. Our deck builder uses Fiberon Horizon because it causes him fewer problems afterward, and time is money. In the end, that is the product we chose in ipe color and with walnut color at the edges of the deck for contrast, clip-type fasteners, and we LOVE it. Easy cleaning and maintenance, no warping or sagging or twisting, no delaminating, no rot, no fading even with the strong UV here in Colorado. Has held up to the snow load and is not noticeably slick when wet. Surprisingly tough and scratch resistant. So far, so good. I would make this choice again. I think it important that the material is stored properly before the build and that the installers know what they are doing.

Nancy, I'm glad your Fiberon deck is holding up, so far. My problem was the back of my house faces west, with an unobstructed view of the mountains, and little shade. In the summer I easily have 10-12 hours of that strong Colorado sun. As you know, Anything with any plastic in it, gets "eaten" by the UV here, when exposed to the sun as much as my deck is. All the composite decking of my neighbors is not holding up well at all. It's either wood, or what I built 10 years ago. It still looks brand new, with only a little fading on my aluminum and steel railing. It basically looks exactly the same as the pics I put on this string 10 years ago(Cooler than wood too). I think your deck will be fine too, because of your limited direct sun. Had your deck been at my home, quite a different story. Still looking for a Colorado Deck company that is interested in learning how I did this.

Fiberon has HORRIBLE customer service and absolutely does not stand by their products. Buyer beware if you purchase. Our construction company has purchased and installed Fiberon exclusively until recently dealing with their “customer service” dept. Beautiful product but pray that you don’t have any issues, because they will not make it right.

Does anyone have experience with Fiberon Horizon Ipe with dogs and visible scratches? were looking to replace our deck but we have two dogs who wrestle and play a lot worried about how marred the deck will get thanks for any input also any recent experiences with how hot and/or slippery it gets? Thanks