I don't have the square footage costs you asked about but I did quite a bit of research several years ago and had several concerns I'll mention here. I'm in SE Texas where we have high humidy and a lot of rain so that may change your circumstances. I was concerned a composite 2 x 6 board cost three times as much as a treated board, some composite lumber had mold and mildew complaints and required power washing with cleaning chemicals, composite lumber isn't made for structural members under the deck and I figured if I had to stick with treated lumber under the deck, I might as well use it for the deck surface as well. I ultimately chose fiberglass beam construction.

Thanks for the synthetic deck warning. I do like going barefoot but given the location/size I'm strictly picking based on color/looks vs. feel preference. I did read the other poster's complaint - but put some shoes on the poor kids feet if it is such an issue. :) Depending on the moment I am switching between Ipe vs. composite but I really like the Ipe deck that Scotte posted the other day...he really messed me up. The deck is so small that if I don't like it, I can always annoy my husband and make him switch it out in the future. We aren't really worried about the money issue. But your supply list is a big help as we weren't sure if we wanted the 6 inch tube or the 8 inch tube and you anwsered that one. My husband's big confusion is if the concrete pad is existing and he attaches a bracket to that for the post or drills a hole in the concrete pad and adds a rod (as the book showed) could that work vs. the tube. He just prefer's not to break up the concrete slab. He doesn't mind the extra work to make it to code/structurally sound or the cost given the project given the size shouldn't be that expensive (expecially compared to everything else we are doing). He has to form a plan in his mind before starting this and he's in his brainstorming phase... you've been a huge help. He is worried if he calls the building code people they will give us a stop order and make us pull a permit. While we in theory have no issue getting a permit, they will not fix our sidewalk on the county rightaway, so I refuse to pull permits for this stuff till they fix my sidewalk! Plus, we are replacing it, not building new and are doing our best to build it to code (which is why we are asking for help). Oh, can you explain why the frostline is important - my husband is getting stumped on that a little too. Thank you again! We are almost there and it will one way or another be going in next weekend.

OK, on to the railings. I have a couple questions and I hope the deck experts can help. I have garapa posts that will hold garapa top/bottom railings with Deckorator metal balusters in between. The railings will attach to the outmost side of the posts, and a top rail will cover the upper sub-rail and posts. My question is, what types of fasteners do I need to attach a) the posts (4x4 garapa) to the deck and b) the rails (2x4 garapa) to the posts? I was going to go with galvanized carriage bolts to attach the posts to the deck frame, but I understand that will cause black marks on the garapa. Since the carriage bolts will be covered by fascia and not seen, is it ok to use galvanized or do I need to splurge for stainless carriage bolts? Likewise, the 2x4 subrails will need to be attached to the posts. These WILL be visible (though hopefully discretely so); I was going to look for 3" stainless screws here. Is that sufficient, or do the rails need to be lagged or bolted to the posts? And can I use trimhead screws here or are those solely for decking?

Welcome a board deckbarn guy. Your site is a sales site,not a deckbuilder site. But you have the loud mouth of some Carpenters I know so it seems you know something about the business. But you dont know doug fir at all it has a very long life exposed to the weather without any treatment at all. Its not to be compaired with hem fir.If young Dream used the copper napthenate and used a S & B grade of dougfir on the whole project he would get 6 years + out of it. The frame is not going in the ground remember. You do know what copper naptheate is right barndeck?? anyway Dream my man using this stuf is nasty put on eye protection and gloves. It has a high smell but it will go away after a while. Might run a big fan on it for a couple of days. Doing this it would not suprise me if you got 10 years out of it. John Hyatt www.deckmastersllc.com