Composite decking, good, back or ugly?

[paperfist]

I'm tired of constantly cleaning and re-staining my wood front porch. There's 2 huge pine trees they keep them in constant shade and let in just enough rain to make a moss mess.

I didn't originally go with composite because I didn't want my front porch to look like a deck, but I see Trex has some composite decking cut at an angle to give the impression that it's one solid piece like the way old porches were built.

The price doesn't really bother me, but in the past when the stuff first came out people claimed bird poop, tree sap, etc would stain it and you couldn't clean it up.

Is that still true and are there any other negatives?

Thanks!

 

[boomerang]

I believe they are all encapsulated now to protect against staining and discoloration. I can't imagine that a product that was not would be saleable in today's market. The other problem with the first products to hit the market was that because they were a composite of wood and man made products (and not encapsulated) the wood was exposed to the elements which led to not just the potential for staining but mold growth. Encapsulating the product with man made material solved that problem to a huge degree. End cuts are still susceptible in the lower end products so you have to research the differences between their different product lines. There is a difference.

Sorry, but I don't follow you at all on the 'cut at an angle'. Maybe a link would help.

 

[paperfist]

I believe they are all encapsulated now to protect against staining and discoloration. I can't imagine that a product that was not would be saleable in today's market. The other problem with the first products to hit the market was that because they were a composite of wood and man made products (and not encapsulated) the wood was exposed to the elements which led to not just the potential for staining but mold growth. Encapsulating the product with man made material solved that problem to a huge degree. End cuts are still susceptible in the lower end products so you have to research the differences between their different product lines. There is a difference.

Sorry, but I don't follow you at all on the 'cut at an angle'. Maybe a link would help.

I can't find the page I was reading about the Trex Transcend Composite Decking angle cut stuff, but here's a supplier link:

http://www.thedeckstoreonline.com/trex-transcend-decking-porch-flooring.html

It's basically a scarf cut that you would find on baseboard or crown moldings to hide the 'seam'. It supposedly hides the typical gap you see in traditional decking.

Thanks for the info! I was looking at some cross cut pieced at HD today and it looks like the wear layer is around 1/4" thick so it should last a while.