Dear Liptonjil

I am responding to your question because I too am hoping someone will answer! Maybe if others see "a response" it will invite a GC browser. Despite all the bad press on composite, I may still say no to wood flooring even though I love wood flooring for a porch.

Everyone talks about decks, but a porch is different. It's the showpiece of your home. It's not a casual living space like a deck even if the deck is gorgeous and pristine.

If I knew there was an uncovered wood porch out there that can withstand really harsh weather I'd like to know ALL about it.

Anyone?

Thank you!

We're building a country farmhouse style of house with a wrap-around porch. Originally, to keep the look of the house authentic, I wanted a wood-look porch, probably done in composite for ease of maintenance, finished in framed lattice. But I decided to go with concrete, stained a light gray for the floor, then finish the sides in red brick, with a red brick steps and edge the sidewalk with the same brick. The house is classic farmhouse style - white with a black dimensional roof and black shutters - so I wanted the front porch to really pop. It was just too much white wood with the original plan and the red brick will be a nice contrast. I thought the brick would be outrageously expensive to do, but surprisingly, the composite material was about the same cost, so I went with concrete/brick.

I am in the initial stages of rebuilding my front porch. I had thought about composite for the flooring but it is not made in tongue & groove. So I plan on replaceing the 5/4 fir and staining it, instead of painting it.
Prices around here for the fir flooring are about $5 sq ft.

When we put our porch on, we went with mahogany. The contractor said Trex and mahogany were the same price, so we went with the mahogany. It looks best right after it's oiled (with tung oil), but even at its worst it looks great. I prefer the wood to the composite. I love it!

Here is a link to a photo of my small Ipe tongue and groove entry porch.
http://photos.gardenweb.com/home/galleries/2007/06/t_g_ipe_porch.html?cat=decks

The porch was built in the summer of 2005. The picture is from March 2006. It still looks very good although the finish is fading a bit. The wood is extremely durable.

Our home is 50 years old and was built using tongue and groove wood flooring for the front porch (the whole home has tongue and groove flooring throughout). It is still in great shape, except for the edges, which are rotting but still intact.

I have an old Victorian in MA, around 140 years old. I finally had to replace the front porch decking last summer. As best as I could tell, we removed the original mahogany decking. If not original, it was at least 30 years old as my neighbor has lived there for 30+ years and has never seen the porch replaced. The frames of the deck were actually attached from inside the house and the vertical porch supports were old wood stumps. It had to be replaced because 2 of those stumps had rotted and one of the 2"x6" (real 2x6) had split. The rear porch of the house still has the old wood that is very sturdy still. The only downer I put on it is the fact the mahogany has greyed severly, but I'm going to be looking to fix that this summer. As far as wear, it has help up nice. (Then again, this house has the original wood gutters still in fine shape).

To the question, When I replaced the porch decking, I replaced it with tongue and groove Mahogany, 5/4". So far it has held up well. I'm sure the composite would hold up and require less maintenance, but I (and more importantly my wife) hate the look of composite. The porch is covered, but not enclosed so I'm have yearly maintenance on it. It is our front porch and gets a fair amount of traffic and wind blown weather. The stairs are actually fully exposed and the original wood decking was in excellent shape when removed. The stairs were only replaced due to the lack of any concrete footings so the wood rotted from underneath.