I have a four year old Trex deck with no problems. They sell hundreds of millions of dollars worth of material, so I seriously doubt they could survive with a pervasive problem. I suspect most prior issues were due to people not clearing leaves and such.

The only major complaint against trex that wouldn't apply to every type of composite is that if you do have any issue that falls within their warranty, they give you a major hassle and run around to get it fixed.

The other complaints I've heard apply to all composite, i.e. childrens feet getting burned because composite heats up super hot in hot climates, composite can get mold if you don't clean it per manufacturer's instructions, scratches and stains cannot be sanded or refinished out like real wood, and composite will sometimes crack or shatter. I am big on recycling and when I learned that composite decking is thrown into a landfill and cannot be recycled, it was a big negative for me too.

In the end, my family chose a thermally modified wood that had a 20 year warranty over rot, mold, and mildew, and had pretty low maintanence being that we only had to put new stain on every 7 years. I have heard of many people who have had great luck on composites though, so maybe you should see if you can find someone who has a composite deck in your area and ask them how it is holding up to your specific climate. Good Luck :)

I love my Azek deck. I worked with my contractor to use it for more than just the decking. We have glass panes instead of pickets, and the panes are trimmed with Azek. The rails are Azek. The stairs have a pattern using Azek. The only wood is the posts, supports (I've got 3 levels so there's some I beam there too!) and under the panes of glass there is a piece of wood for supporting the weight. It's going to be nearly maintenance free aside from painting touch up. We found a matching deck flooring paint color to use for all the wood, and a plastic lattice that matched to cover up the crawl space (which is over 10 feet at the bottom, since we are on a slope). The only downside is that Azed doesn't make fascia sheets as wide as what I needed, so that is painted wood as well.

I had samples of Azek and samples of composite, and it was a no-brainer for me. A key scratch on the composite was totally noticable, but on the Azek you had to hold it just right in the light to find it. It's been up 18 months and no problems.

Trex will lighten slightly as the sun reacts with the very outer finish. That also applies with scratches, as the virgin material is exposed it appears darker and more noticable, but over time cures to the same color. I personally wouldn't choose Trex where young kids can beat it up, but for adults it's ideal IMO.

When I built my deck I was a little concerned about mold and mildew problems since it is on the north side of the house. So I ended up looking at TimberTech XLM and CorrectDeck CX. Both seemed to have a harder, more scratch resistant surface than regular composites - ended up going with TimberTech since a local lumber yard had it in stock at a reasonable price. It has held up well and still looks good.

Timber Tech is a high quality outfit with a good long term track record far as it's end user goes and a not bad manmade decking product.

A person might want to drift on over to www.deckmagazine.com under finishing up click on beware azek decking.

srercrcr is a troll poster. A simple google on trex problems will speak for itself. J.

Troll poster?? You're on this site alot more than I am. What does that make you? Perhaps you have to post twice the number of entries to get to the same number of properly spelled words.

Well said Denver. J.

My contractor seems to think that Trex has more structure to it and would be a little stiffer than Azek and would span 16" better. Make any sense?

Gary

Any 5/4 composite has more structure to it than azek that really needs joists on 12'' centers or 10'' laid on the bias. J.

We have Trex (installed 5 yrs. ago) and have 5 kids. I'd say the wear and tear is not from them. If grease from the grill spills on it-a stain. I haven't been able to get those little stains out. The sun has lightened it slightly. We installed it mostly for maintenance purposes as wood decks here in CO have to be refinished every couple of years. What a pain. So, looking at it purely for maint. I'd go for Trex again but want to research these other brands you've talked about as we are building again.

As someone who has installs alot of composite decking I would say trex would be my last choice for decking. Of the other two choices I'd go with Timbertech. Besides the things all ready mentioned, it's a better looking product, made in the US of A too.