The person who said to live with it is exactly correct. We have a 680-sqft composite deck and we purposely built it around a 40-ft Norway pine. We were managing sap removal fairly well until the summer of 2021 when pretty much the entire deck got covered, and I mean covered, in sap. Couldn't find even 1 square foot without sap on it. Never seen anything like it. Even our Hannamint furniture took a beating. So we cut the tree down a few weeks ago. We have tried Goo Gone, soapy water, power washing, composite deck cleaner, scrubbing, rubbing, scraping. With the density of the droplets from 2021 we are ending up smearing the sap so instead of a million little white sap stains, now the sap is essentially pressed into the fine groves in the deck mold...so a broader white spot appears. So, it's either live with the small white spots or live with the remnants of the rubbing. Neither is ideal. We are simply going to give it a washing with the Krud Cutter deck and fencc cleaner to remove the surface stickiness and live with a white spotted deck. That is, until I call to have someone come and rplace 100% of the boards. That's the only way to get a totally sap free deck for us, is to replace it all.

Deckbarn, 1)There is no way ONE 'painter' stained ALL the WHITE and ALL the TAN on that deck w two coats(one done before install) in one week.. NOT with a brush...Were you there? Do you see brush marks? I'm calling BS on that....and as I said before, I painted for quite a few years and yes sir I was the 'trim &detail girl' so whether your hand is good or not.... whether you are a fast OR slow brusher- didn't no ONE MAN done do ALL that trim in one week.... PERIOD...... 2)Please post CLOSE UPS of your deck so I can see the seams and how all deck components marry together...neatly?? Gapping?? Any big messy caulk beads? Pine is soft and wet......so ummmm... I'd love CLOSE UP PICS Mr. Puffy. And would love to see your RED Trex decking,top rail,etc. up close so I can see if it's blotchy like it looks in the pics...and I want to see the red Trex top rail and what I assume is face screwed decking.. just to see how what the overall look is.UP CLOSE 3)yeah Deckbarn, i know painters use ladders...I don't know any PAINTER that would want to work on the top of your gazebo. It's an awkward reach.... and on a crazy pitch. 3)My deck cost is $20,000..(thevinyl fence surround on the second floor will put it over $20,000.The RDI Novalign PVC railing is a HUGGGE part of the cost.... I don't want your wood railings.I'm sure you could do my deck for $15,000, but NOT with the material I want to use and YOU ain't doing it anyway.. You would give the job to whoever is the hungriest for work.... PERIOD 4)brace yourself for this Puffy... I live five miles outside Manhattan...People who do 'labor' here get paid more bc it costs more to live here...Are you 30 miles out of Detroit???? Go closer toward the city and it's different.....My house is 120 years old...I am essentially the 'contractor' for all renovations...I research materials before a project starts and then get recommendations from each guy within his specialty. I oversee a master electrician,plumber,and a carpenter.(all three have minimum 30 years experience) I'm sure I could find a guy who only does decks,but it's NJ and what some people call 'straight and finished' is not what I call 's and f'... My carpenter building the deck is highly skilled and you know what??? Money isn't everything... I would rather blow an extra $4000 to be able to sleep at night and know I can make modifications or change materials as we go along....... It's worth it to me... THERE IS NOTHING on my house that is plumb,straight,cookie cutter....I don't want to stain friggin ANYTHING anymore.... I don't want to paint ANYTHING anymore.... PRETEND I'm your customer. You aren't even listening to me.. You are still stuck on promoting a deck the way that is the most profit for you... I know it sux that synthetic railings dip into your profit.....That's life.. But my dear, synthetics are the future on decks.... You should embrace it instead of promoting your BOTTOM line number on building a deck...Someone always pays...and your middle class customer w 3 kids and both working doesn't want to stain or Good Golly have to find someone to stain it in 4 years.....staining railings is a pain in the bum.. YOU know it.. admit it... Have you ever looked at a roof when they smacked it on with a large crew??? The more hands that drop shingles the worse it looks.. I like one hand on my projects... Just a matter of preference....

Same way as the sample that houssaon provided. You don't want to mix wood with composite deck structure it will look out of place. You can also use lattice with 1.5" reveal Example Here, you can use Trex Decking material Example Here. You will also have to recut new stair stringers, and most likely add additional 2 stringers (depending on the width of the stair) to break up the span, composite should have stringers spaced 12" on center.Example Here

We just did our deck too, literally finishing any day now. We used toasted sand too. Our deck height is very similar to yours. We skirted with vertical skirting. Our rails are black matte aluminum rails (glass insert). We used a border in Coastal Bluff around the skirting (or maybe is fascia?). I think I probably should have just kept it all toasted sand because there wasn't much a colour difference between the two to make it pop. We added a door, so we can access the inside of the deck for stoarge. What kind of landscaping are you doing infront of the skirt? Its a lot of brown to look at so I want to cover it with shrubs or something.