TorxHead

Today's redwood is nothing like the old-growth redwood that was available maybe 50 years ago. All of that old-growth redwood has long been harvested or is now is protected forests. The old growth stuff was somewhat naturally rot resistant but today's redwood is no more rot resisant than untreated pine. Despite this fact the redwood folks continue to say that redwood is naturally rot resistant. For a wood deck your best bet today is either treated pine or for untreated, a hard & dense wood like Ipe.

Now on to composite/sythetic decking. In my opinion the vast majority of this stuff sold has been junk. Composites were the fist man-made deck boards. The definition of a composite is something made with two or more materials. In a composite deck board one of the composites is wood fiber and the other is plastic. This is a really bad idea! These deck boards are extremely heavy, structurally weak, not fade resistant, and acommodate mold growth. Why would you ever include wood fibers in any man-made decking? It has no benefit wahtsoever over normal wood decking.

Now there is a man-made decking that I like. It is of course not a wood fiber/plastic composite but rather 100% plastic. While there are or have been 100% plastic decking products on the market, the specific one I am referring to is cellular PVC. I like the stuff because, compared to all of the other 100% plastic decking out there, it is lightweight and easy to work with (cut, screw, etc..). It is also tuff. This cellular PVC decking is now being marketed by three or so manufactures. The two big ones are Azek (Azek deck) and Trex (Trex Escapes). I believe the Azek deck product used to be known as Procell. Anyway, these manufactures have just recently came out with darker colors which FINALLY look more like stained wood and less like vinyl siding. The main downside is initial cost but the long term cost of ownership should be less than real wood (no periodic re-finishing required).