get a gallon of ice tea..put a tank top on.. removed one plank at a time.. and replaced it with ipe.. at 1.70-2.00 a foot you would have spent..around 1500 for wood and screws and would have had a deck you could have let go gray and had no maintenance..The wood weathers great with very low splinters if any... and your daughter will be drinking tea on it as an old lady.
Estimates for ipe durability range from 30 to 60 yrs.
There is no better deck material than IPE. Anything else is just a waste of time.
You can also stain it if you want for a rich brown tropical look.
The composites contain wood.. water will work it's way in and create mold and this stuff will eventually break down, fade and who knows what else in 10 yrs.
Composites are also more money than ipe.
Fix your problem for good.. call George at East teak, give him your measurements.. and you'll have a pile of ipe within a week.. with a box of stainless steel screws with a small head. Pre-drill it.. and.......your hospital trips are over.

Here is a link that might be useful: EAST TEAK

Amycar,

Redwood and cedar are very soft woods and in my opinion are simply not a good choice for the "working" surface of a deck. Pressure treated pine is much harder than either of these and is considerably more rot resistant but pressure treated pine checks and cracks if not sealed on a regular basis. Maybe the quality of "heart" redwood and cedar was better 75 years ago but those days are long gone.

VERY recently, I went to several lumber yards and home centers to get samples of composite decking - I am talking the latest fancy stuff like Trex Brasilia and Timbertech Earthwood, etc.. These are samples that I took home with me to abuse.

Anyway, I found that all of the Trex stuff is absolute garbage. Trex is by far, the softest composite I have found - it is most easily DEEPLY gouged by simply scaping a screwdriver blade across the surface. (This is my screw driver "softness" test). Anyway, anything this soft is a mistake for the working surface of a deck - it will quickly be deeply scratched and ruined. Plus, I beleive anything soft will facilitate mold growth.

Eon is very hard and very pretty (looks like wood) but it has a huge coefficient of expansion so it too is a bad choice.

Procell is hard and light but it is very expensive and looks EXACTLY like vinyl siding (UGLY) - so forget Procell.

Timbertech Earthwood is similar to Trex Brasilia but it is considerably harder..

Weatherbest is a bit harder than Timbertech and appears to have less real wood content. Weatherbest is manufactured by Louisiana-Pacific which most people know.

If I were to use synthetic decking I would probably pick Weatherbest decking in the Tuscan Walnut color. The price is also reasonable at $2.20 per foot.

If you decide to go with IPE or even pressure treated pine I recommend you seal it with OneTime Wood Protector in "Clove Brown" Do NOT use "Natural" as it has very little pigment and will not protect from graying as well as "Clove Brown". I have used OneTime Wood in clove brown to seal a VERY LARGE Rainbow Play Systems King Kong series play set and it is holding up extremely well.

Here are the links:

http://www.onetimewood.com/catalog/OneTIMETheLeaderinWoodProtectionOneGallon.aspx

http://www.timbertech.com/products/earthwood.aspx

http://www.lpcorp.com/lpweatherbestdeckingandrailing/products/premiumgrain.aspx

You sound very knowledgable. Aren't Timbertech and Trex made from the same raw material...polyethylene?

Yes they are. So is Weatherbest.

Most synthetic decking is made from polyethylene because polyethelyene is the cheapest plastic to manufacture. However there are some that are made from other materials.

Here are the four plastics of which just about all synthetic decking is made from:

Polyetheylene: Trex, Weatherbest, Gordeck, Timbertech, ChoiceDek

Polypropylene: CorrectDeck, CrossTimbers

PVC: Procell, DeckLok (PVC products are generally expensive)

Polystyrene: Eon (major problem is that Polystyrene really expands & contracts with temperature changes)

I would like to get my hands on a sample of Correctdeck (polypropylene) but so far I have not had the time to persue this.

The more I learn about synthetic decking the more I think that IPE is the way to go. The main thing to remember is that all sythetic decking will lighten up, often considerably with exposure to the sun. Once this occurs it is permanent! A pressure treated pine deck or an IPE deck can always be refinished and look like new. I previously mentioned my preference for OneTime Wood in Clove Brown and I still think this is a good way to go.

srercrcr,

I guess density of the PE and wood fiber content used in the formulation. This is a question would be best answered by the manufacturer. All I know is that Trex is the softest. Maybe this is why is Trex is so susceptable to mold growth?

Today, I ordered Portico composite decking to replace my 16 year old pressure treated pine decking. Portico is made from maple wood flour and virgin high density polyethlene. It looks to me like it will hold up well. We considered Ipe, but don't want to have to seal it each year, or get splinters. We have a couple pieces of Trex that have been laying on the deck for about 3 years. We were considering that, but it just looks like particleboard to me. Trex uses softwood chips and recycled plastic. I'll let you know in a few years how the Portico holds up....

Here is a link that might be useful: Portico Decking

Last Fall, I priced out IPE vs. Trex Brasilia for my project. The Trex was 2x as much in price!!! Now, IPE and stain (even if every year) will last longer and look 1000% better anyway, so go with IPE or Massuranduba

Two things about the Trex...Even the dark Brasilia color (look closely at a sample that has been OUTSIDE in sunlight) will show the WHITE plastic "threads". I saw it on many many samples. Very bad looking "fuzz." Also, the jury is still out on the fading issue with composites. I do not think any of them guarantee they wont fade, and many companies are producing brighteners and special products to restore the colors. Yikes.

nutsandbolts,

I am glad you brought up the white plastic threads that eventually show on the surface of the composite decking. I am not sure that those are plastic though. I always thought those were the wood fibers that is mixed in with the polyethylene.

Well, to be honest, I am not sure either. I had heard about them, so I knew what to look for. They are pretty easy to see on many of the samples I have viewed that have been outdoors and weathered. Either way, it kind of defeats the purpose (in my mind) of paying all that money for a dark surface, when that sort of thing happens.

I was set on Trex Brasilia but after buying some samples I'm really worked about how it is going to holdup.
http://www.lakesidellc.com/decktest/default.htm

Here is a link that might be useful: My Deck Material Trex Fiberon test

I am looking to install a nice wood deck on a covered deck in Florida.. I was looking at the Trex Brasisia and ran into this blog... I did a quick google on the WeatherBest product and found this law suit... Just thought I would copy and paste the statement of the case....

WeatherBest Composite Decking Investigation

Louisiana-Pacific Corporation (LP Building Products) recently issued a product advisory for composite decking materials purchased after January 1, 2005, and made by LP at its Meridian, Idaho facility.

Some of the product can prematurely deteriorate and break, posing a risk of injury to consumers. LP decking products, including deck board and railings sold under the names of LP WeatherBest(R), WeatherBest(R), ABTCo and Veranda(R) are subject to this advisory.

In addition I recently saw an exterior Teak flooring product used on HGTV with a snap and lock system that looked really neat... But I can't find it on their website or anywhere else... The best I have been able to find is a 1 square foot tile product ... The product featured was longer lengths and cut down for installation.... Anyone have any idea's???

It's been 4 years now and our Portico deck still looks good. It appears that it gets slightly more porous as it ages, making it a little more difficult to power wash the winter's dirt off. It still beats staining though and there are no splinters. I also have noticed some spots of unknown origin, possibly tree sap, that appear. The pressure washer removes them, but they eventually return. Another poster reported the same problem and was very unhappy. I guess our expectations are a bit lower. We remain happy with the decision to go with portico. We used mahogany on the upper deck two years earlier and that, in spite of yearly applications of Australian Timber Oil, is weathering not much better than the original pressure treated pine.

I find that spraying with Olympic Deck Cleaner with a garden sprayer, followed by pressure washing cleans it up rather easily.

My neighbor built a deck with Ipe last summer, that was our alternate choice when we were making our selection. We decided against it because I had a sample board laying on the deck for several months and it was warping and splitting. I will see how their's holds up over the years to see if we made the right choice.

I don't think the perfect deck material has been developed yet...

I hope this helps.