# Composite-wood decks - questions



## Ann Herrick (Sep 24, 2010)

For those of you who have decks made from composite wood:

Are they slippery-when-wet (any more than a regular wood deck might be)?

Do squirrels chew on them (as they do on my wood deck?)

If you have a cat, does it use the rails as scratching posts (as mine does on our wood deck)?

Thanks!


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## spotsmom (Jan 20, 2011)

We have had a composite deck for 10 years and it has held up beautifully in our weather (lots of heavy ice in the winter, etc.). "No" to all your questions.

I hate to think how much work we would have had to do on a regular cedar deck had we opted for it instead!  We did do cedar trim and it now looks awful and should have been redone a couple of years ago.  We bought composite because we have multiple dogs and knew their claw marks would kill a cedar deck.  If you look just right, you can see claw marks, but nothing like a conventional wood deck.

Will say that I have had several friends who bought Trex (we did not) and the entire deck failed!!  I hope they've gotten better!


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## JETaylor (Jan 25, 2011)

We've had Trex decking for over ten years - which is primarily the same as composite and haven't had an issue.  The stairs were made from regular wood and we'll have to replace those fairly soon - but the rest of the deck has held up beautifully and it isn't slippery when wet and we haven't had any issues with rodents or insects with the deck either. 

I'd highly recommend going this route because it holds up beautifully in rough weather - like spotsmom - ours had had wind, rain, snow, sleet and ice and still looks great.  Only thing I'd do differently in the future is allow more of a space between the slats so pine needles don't build up - but that's it.  

Good luck!


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## hsuthard (Jan 6, 2010)

We replaced our wood deck with pressure treated lumber six years ago. We considered composite but the cost scared us off. Now, our deck needs some work and it obviously won't be too much longer before it needs to be rebuilt again.

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