cooper boston, First both products are virturally maintainance free. Soon, with the cost of oil rising, vinyl/PVC will be going up in price as well. Its really a matter of what you like and what you want to see. Some vinyl/PVC look fake and, in my opinion, lack structural integrity. Some have large sleeve type mounting brackets for the rails that really look fake. My choice is fiberal. I just installed them on a small porch landing and stariway last week. They really look nice. I've been using them for about six years now and they hold up real well. You know Cooper, take a look at my album and you'll come across a complete M/Free porch. I used fiberail on it. See what you think. www.fibercomposites.com Good Luck The PorchGuy Here is a link that might be useful: My Album

Riceandstone, We ended up using Gossen, which is another composite material. We decided on that mainly because it came in a color that we wanted and it appeared less "plastic" looking than the other composites. It was slightly more expensive than Azek. The boards are attached with tongue and groove screws, so not visible from the top of the boards . A neighbor used the same material and has lived with it for several years without any complaints. Our contractor, whom we trust, basically convinced us that composites were the way to go. I have seen decks from ipe and although they are beautiful, some look "mildewed.". I'm sure that can be avoided by routine maintenance but we were hoping for minimal maintenance. The floor of the deck is Gossen, but the railing is Azek. And we used cedar for the large posts ( stained gray). I will post pictures when I can.

I am redoing the flooring of my porch. I prefer the PVC samples I have seen compared to the capped composite samples. My google search for PVC vs. capped composite hasn't helped my decision- I found equal pros and cons for both. It's a small porch, no wider than 6 feet, so there will be no long sections of PVC. I would appreciate your advice and any positive experiences with PVC decking. Thanks.

I am interested learning the differences between the brands of composite and pvc decking and IPE as well. We first considered IPE but heard that it needed to be oiled every year or two in our Temperate climate whereas the Trex and Azek/TimberTech were pretty much maintenance free. Our contractor told us to look at Trex products or the “TimberTech Pro“ group which is Just one of the three or four different Azek product lines. Azek offers some products made from pvc, others are composite, and some have the fake timber effect, others don’t—there really are quite a few different price points and styles which I found somewhat confusing. I am not sure what exactly makes the difference In prices. For now we picked out the tigerwood from TimberTech in part because it is in stock at the lumberyard. For other styles there was a 3 month wait. We may yet change our minds If we hear convincing reviews.