Thanks, mooring_girl, for the feedback on JeldWen. I should have realized that aging paint on fiberglass would be an issue. The big question is whether any of the factory finishes will look decent with our house paint, since the deck is at the front of the house, not the more private back side. We will have to wait to see the dealer's finish samples. ajm51, we live on the Monterey Peninsula, never too hot or too cold, and no air conditioning, so a sweating metal-clad door shouldn't be an issue.

We live in the Santa Ynez Valley of California and have redwood decks on the East, West and South sides of our home. After extensive research I decided to try Sikkens CETOl SRD on the new decks on the East and South sides of the house. That was in 2004. I used the 078 Natural color on the East and South facing decks. I used the 054 Redwood color on the West facing deck (in my backyard). After two years I noticed significant degradation of the stain on the South side which gets lots of direct Sun. I sanded and reapplied the 078 stain and it brought it back to near new. The following year (third year) I sanded and reapplied 078 stain to the East facing deck with equivalent results. I noted that the West facing deck with the darker stain was holding up better but the color was ageing a little too dark. In 2008 I completed an addition to that deck and after sanding everything I applied a 50/50 mix of 078 and 054 stains. It looked fantastic although I can see that the old 100% 054 part of the deck is a bit darker than the new part with the 50/50 mix. Never the less, I have received many compliments on the color of this deck. It has held up well and will need a reapplication of stain next year. Note: The West side deck does get shade protection from the house until later in the afternoon so my guess is a fully exposed West deck would perform equivalent to an fully exposed East facing deck in this climate. I have used other products in the past in this climate (ThompsonâÂÂs, Behr, Olympic) and Sikkens is the best so far. While I have read good things about Defy I have not used it because I could not get it locally back when I started this project in 2004. My conclusion is that in this environment it is clear that no stain can hold up against the Sun for more than 2 or 3 years without significant degradation. Summary Sikkens is a good product. It is not perfect and does require maintenance. In this climate on South facing wood surfaces in direct Sun plan on lightly sanding and reapplying one coat every other to every third year. On East and West facing wood surfaces in direct Sun plan on lightly sanding and reapplying one coat every third or fourth year. If you let it get away from you (as I did on the South facing side over the past 3 years) the product will start to flake and peel in places. To restore you will need to scrape and sand to get a good surface then re-stain and it will look fine. The 50/50 078 & 054 color mix looks better than 100% 054 Redwood in my opinion and gives better performance than 100% 078 Natural. A stained exterior wood surface will always require maintenance much sooner than a painted surface. I like the look of stained wood and accept the need for periodic maintenance. If this is too much work then don't stain and just paint with a good quality exterior paint.

You've answered your own question....saltillo tile is *very* slippery when wet and retains heat more than anything i've seen. For that reason alone, i wouldn't try to dissuade you. That said, I ended up tying together new decking (concrete pavers) with a small patch of existing stamped concrete patio, as I didn't want the additional expense. I have no regrets as they tied in well together (pavers are charcoal-brown-buff and stamped concrete is gray). Glad I saved the additional $$ and hassle factor, but if it were mexican tile that was here instead of stamped concrete, i would have felt quite differently, (I had that stuff in my last home and it was a nightmare).

It depends if you are surface mounting the posts - or you are core drilling into the cement. If you are surface mounting, then they should finish the deck first. If you are core drilling, it might be better to put the posts in first so the deck coating can cover the cement around the posts. I'm not sure if the deck coating will ruin the aluminum fence powder coat. I hope you found a good solution to this problem.