Yo Ken, if your still around your up on this one. Far as Composites go I am with the Larry/whoever We are for the most part. Composites are really no longer using recycled material because there is just not enough of it so most of the raw stuff is virgin,the energy used to make composite is an enviro no no, when its time to remove the project composite is not real big on bio degrade its tricky to burn shreading it would be silly. Bottom line composites are not so enviro freindly. Info like that might suggest its not all that good to clean it either, with anything. I dont agree>> composites will out last Ipe, left to go silver/gray Ipe is as close to no maintance as a person can get. With the softer composites like Choice/MoistureShield even trex= tjunk I have found a coat or two of TWP 116 seals up the decking,locks in the color and keeps mold,mildew,stains from causing major problems. Of course not needing to do this is the reason the Wallet goes for composite in the first place. I my own self dont like composites at all for the reasons stated in several posts here and on other sites. Welcome aboard Larry!!! Sorry I dident understand your intent at the begining . John

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.

We put down a trex deck on east side of our home with lots of shade 3 years ago. No problems with mold until we had a very wet spring and summer in minnesota this year. I expected to have to wash and maintain this low maintenance deck. We had lots of mold staining everywhere on deck. After tring Behr deck mold and remover with no luck I was extremely unhappy. Tried Simplying Green full strength with no luck. After pulling out my hair and complaining to my husband about why he wanted composite instead of wood I told him I would have been better off spending 2 days staining a real wood deck. After lots of reading on various threads on composite decking problems and trex websites on how to clean it,I finally found a product that working amazing! I used Mold Armour ez deck wash from Home Depot. I know the product contains a bleach solution but it worked in a matter of min. I did wet down the surrounding areas with a water hose including the railings and grass. Wet down the deck boards first before applying the product with a soft brush in an ice cream pail. No scrubbing was required but I had control with application by this method. I did small section at a time and rinsed off after only 5 min or so. You can see the product work! Be careful not to let solution on boards to long because it does contain bleach and bleach will fade anything it comes in contact with. I did this project on July 4 and want to see how long mold stays away. I plan on buying a more eco friendly product in future like Corte Clean but didnlt try it this time because no stores in our area carry it and it is quite expensive. You also have to watch expiration date and have to buy it on line. Has anyone had luck with this product with mold spots and how long does the mold stay away with Corte Clean or Mold Armour? By the way my deck looks amazing and has no structure problems like some I have been hearing about. My husband built deck himself and followed all the proper guidllines to install. We also used hidden fastener system for instalation and used proper support system underneath. We have the saddle color with accents brand. Hopefully the mold issue will be a controllable one since we plan on staying ahead of it this time and not wait so long to wash it. We also had alot of snow this winter and I didnt always get out there to promply to remove snow. Let me know if you have had better luck with other products as I dont want to use a product so often that contains bleaching agents. Still wish my husband would have agreed with me to use cedar but I lost the battle and had to settle for composite. I keep telling him I told you so about composite and I am stuck with an $8,000 deck that is not low maintenance. I appreciate any feedback on a sealer or something to put down so i only have to wash deck to maintain and keep mold spots at bay. Any luck with sealers or stains?

I gotta tell you - the last consumer report I read about stains and paints made my eyes bulge! The little teeny tiny print about what the parameters were during testing cleared things up a bit but all in all, I felt they were misleading...and not the best for consumers at all. Our "fact finding" comes from real life application and maintenance, not nicely boxed up testing. With that said, a friend of ours went to her friends house last weekend to view their new deck. She has the Tamko stuff as her rail system. My friend said those railings LOOKED like utter crap (terminology altered!) It was only a week old, looked filthy dirty and really cheap, felt cheap...that's a homeowner unsolicited opinion. The best advise I would want to put out is (a) don't pay attention to reports (consumer or otherwise) that can hardly be unbiased when not everyone is involved in testing (b) don't talk to sales people since they have a vested interest and (c) talk to people that install it, or have it, or have to maintain it....those will be your true knowledgeable stories :) Celeste Here is a link that might be useful: Ask Professional Deck Builders Opinions