Let me start by saying that I'm brand new to this forum. (I spend most of my GW time in Bathrooms!) From the reading I've done so far, there are some very knowledgable people here and I am admittedly NOT knowledgable on the subject of decks so please bear with me.

Our 19 year old cedar deck had deteriorated to the point that it was an unsalvagable safety hazard so we recently removed the top decking material. My husband feels that the understructure is in pretty good shape and should be usable although we plan to expand the footprint somewhat.

We were assuming that we would replace the deck with Trex or some other composite material. From what I've read so far, that seems like it could be a very expensive mistake. We don't want to ignore the warning signs if mold is an ongoing issue with these products.

Honestly, we're not great about keeping up with the maintenance of a wood deck, otherwise we might have gotten a few more years out of our cedar deck. So we're looking for the best option(s) for something that would require as little care and maintenance as possible, recognizing that there is no such thing as "maintenance free."

We live in the midwest so we have all four seasons. The deck is on the north side of our house at the edge of fairly dense woods so it's in the sun for just a few hours each day.

Could you point me in the right direction or offer any advice on materials that we should consider?

Thanks very much!