Wow, I realize this is pretty well after the post, but for what it's worth for others...

I have about a fifteen-year-old ipe (called Pao Lope when I bought it) deck. All framing beneath is pressure-treated pine, up-sized by a factor of one, sprayed with Thompson's Water Seal and left to dry and change dimensionally for a year before the ipe was applied, with the frame's joists first re-leveled by cutting, sanding, or adding pressure-treated spacers before the good stuff went down. My ipe boards are plain, 6" x 1" decking, fastened with trim-head square drive stainless steel screws over 16"-spaced joists. Posts are 4"x4" ipe, balusters are 1.5"x1.5" ipe, and railing is a 2"x6" ipe over 1"x4" ipe. All connecting bolts, washers, and nuts are stainless steel, as are the hurricane ties and nails connecting joists to beams. No two boards terminate on the same joist (it requires careful planning for doubled joists where needed) I have never applied a finish to it. For years, I only pressure-washed it to clean. Now, each year, I apply Wet and Forget cleaner, and later wash the deck with a 2700 psi power washer with a 40º tip held close to the wood (just water), and it turns a lovely beige that weathers to a beige-grey until the next time it is power-washed. It looks as if, when the house collapses, the deck will still be there. I still have railing miter joints that are too tight for a piece of paper to fit in. Fine Homebuilding has wonderful deck-construction books that I bought and followed when I built my deck (12' 4" x 50' - three separate projections following the outline of the house, with 45º outside corners, and sections that wrap around the side of the house for an additional 6')