Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Time for a new deck. Cedar or pressure-treated??

This.

Depends on where you live and the climate.

I’d go grooved and hidden fasteners.

You ever do business with Advantage lumber? Buying sight unseen over the phone gives me pause.

Why were you less than impressed with cedar? Cedar is on of the best natural wood materials there is for a deck. The mistake that so many folks make with cedar is, they try to stain and or coat it to make it look like furniture... Cedar - presuming it is actual cedar - is not meant to be stained or sealed for outdoor use - ever see anyone stain and seal a cedar split-rail fence? The best thing anyone can do with cedar is install it with coated nails (screws are obviously better), and just let it turn the beautiful silver-gray color it does naturally.

I think it is a beautiful deck material that should easily last a lifetime. If you want a deck with a stained finish on it, the price just goes up exponentially, an the work never ends.

Just my 2-cents.

[EDIT] If price isn't an issue then a man-made material can be a good choice.

I have a cedar deck, and in the near future, it will be getting replaced with Trex. My house is 5 years old as of last month, and the cedar while not rotting, it is dried and cracked all to hell, which is typical of cedar.

We have a higher end customer at work that is considering replacing his deck. I'll pass this info on to my boss and the customer, maybe we'll take a trip into Buffalo and check it out.

If it’s g round level or can be just poor concrete and relax. Ed k

I haven’t read the entire thread but have you considered Trex?

What ever the synthetic glue board that is indestructible and is formed to look like lumber.

Use that.

Cedar... but don't ever paint it! It will then rot.

Mahogany. Wears like steel. No rot.

Our home in Pa.

Will need to replace current rear deck in a year or three. Will be Trex decking with highest retention Pressure Treat I can secure for each component. If I feel motivated, might saw the structural pieces out of white oak. But, that gets to be like work as well...

Around here, the lower level retention PT is like dipping the wood in green Kool-aid. About useless...

The toughest environment ever, could be flatbed and lowboy trailer decking. Lowboy decks really get a beating, dozer tracks doing what they do. Apitong is kind of the industry standard for re-decking trailers, sure is pretty wood, silvers beautifully in a couple years. I don't think it is terribly expensive, but you could go to a commercial trailer website and probably get a real world price. I have no idea how suitable it would be for residential service, but with no treatment whatsoever, weather checking is minimal, slivering seems minimal, warping non existent. Countersunk bolt heads collect water and mud and they do not rot or soften. I have been called many things however, carpenter ain't one of 'em.

PT posts and framing, cedar hand rail, trex decking, this is about 15 years old..

I have trex decking. Granted, it is on my semi-covered porch, but it has been out there for almost 22 years in the rain, snow, 100 degrees to minus 20. Performance has been perfect - no issues at all. No slivers, no warping, no splitting, no staining or seal necessary. But the joists underneath the trex are rotting, so when I redo my deck in a few years, I plan to save the trex and reuse it but replace the joists with pressure treated.

this......bob

this is where people screw up...….bob

My pressure treated deck is less than 10 years old and rotting everywhere. Summer project is to rebuild it.

Cedar and coat it with Sikkens as directed...it will look like a piece of furniture for years.

If you can fit it in your budget, Ipe is the way to go. It'll be there longer than your house.