Thank you for thoughtful suggestions and/or assumptions. I did see samples of all of the products - but, dude, the samples had not been cut or trimmed. I should also state that the problem with the planks and fascia is primarily on the stairs. Our deck is not attached to the house but rather it sits in the woods and is on a rather steep hill. There are 8 steps to the first landing, 6 steps to the second landing and 5 steps to the top level. The stairs are not continuos - but at each level they actually are at the opposite end of the landing so that one is not staring at a large climb. Since the stairs are in the woods the treads or planks were not concealed by the fascia so that sweeping the stairs could be done rather easily. So we have a slight overhang at each step. Of course the fascia has been trimmed to follow the contour of the stringers. All in all it is superb design all around. As I said - the original deck was cedar and the ends were not an issue. I still suggest that TT should point out the fact that the core will not match the shell in their marketing pieces.

The Porch Guy Thanks for replying. Your photo's were helpful. My husband did suggest putting two staircases on the porch to balance the look. With a cape I do like both side to be balanced. I'm wondering if this is to Grand for my small front yard though? I wish my husband would show me how to put pic's on line. Do you know of any pics on line I could go see that show a double stairs on either side of the front door of a covered front porch into a small yard. LOL you know my house but not. Thanks again Teri

So in reading it sounded like TimberTech is generally considered to be a decent product and possibly Azek. True? Which TimberTech product are you looking at? I've been very happy with XLM on my deck. It's very hard and doesn't scratch or stain. It's PVC so it pretty much does look like plastic - though it has a faux woodgrain finish on one side. I think Azek is also PVC so it is probably comparable. I also looked at CorrectDeck CX and it looked good - not sure if it is still available. Is there anything particularly tricky about installing either of these or can my good GC do the job? I would think just about anybody could do it - I used the same contractor that did my porch, siding, and roof. You do need to do something with the ends of the boards because you can see the "structure" - picture frame or something. They make a matching fascia board for this and that is what I used. I also used the hidden fasteners and grooved boards. Approximately what is the cost of this material compared with others? I think I paid $3.XX per board-foot - but that was several years ago. It was more expensive than composite.

A couple of additional thoughts: 1) For security cameras, you almost certainly will not need cat6, and could use cheaper cat5e instead (unless you will really need that additional throughput available on cat6 and will be using 4k cameras or something!). Also if you will not be using PoE (power over ethernet) cameras, make sure you have power near the camera locations. Save the cat6 for high-bandwidth needs like computer networks and video streaming. 4) Depending on how long these runs are, you may need intermediate amps or additional amps at the ends to compensate for power loss over long runs. I bet you can find calculators online that take into account the length of the run, the wire gauge, and amp power to see if you'll need the extra help or not. 5) consider running Cat5e for the volume control so you can decide to go with a fancy touchpad or something if you want. I would expect the 'regular' volume control wire is just 22/4 or something, so even if you don't go fancy with the controls, you could just use 4 wires of the cat5 anyways. And a few additional possibilities: 7) If you think you might ever want a security system, put wiring in for sensors to all doors/windows now, as well as for control panels, door intercoms, etc. If you run multi-conductor wire (like cat5) you can potentially piggyback the window sensor wires if you want to add motorized shades later as well. 8) Run 1-2 RG6 cables from the central media location to the attic for a tv antenna and a cell repeater antenna (if you think you might have cell reception problems in the house) 9) If you have a large house, run Cat6 to additional locations in the house for wifi repeaters/boosters to increase coverage.