Composite wood-plastic decking

I can't claim much personal experience, other than having seen a few Fiberon decks. But I've been tracking composites for 15 years, and they've come a long way from the first generations (anyone remember dissolving Trex?).

Fiberon looks like one of the good new ones. They are really recycling: wood and plastic that would otherwise be "trash" from local sources, and making use of their own material and water wastes. I don't like that they continue to use PVC at all, but that's my only gripe.

all in all, thumbs up!

We recently replaced our weatherbeaten redwood decking with Fiberon and we're very pleased with the result. I selected this particular product because the color and texture were the most naturalistic and innocuous of the lot of composite options. Unfortunately, I'm informed that Fiberon will no longer be carrying the product line that has faux wood grain on only one side (my preferred side -- I have a strong aversion to the faux wood grain).

The deck is smooth (but matte, not slick) and splinter-free, a pleasure to walk on in bare feet. It was our contractor's first experience with a composite decking, and he's now converted. It went in beautifully, was easy to work with (though the hidden fasteners took some getting used to), and the cost was competitive with high-quality solid wood (e.g., heart grain redwood).

I was not easy to win over to composites, but this one at least represents a big leap forward compared with the early entries into the market, which looked (and may of which still do look) decidedly plastic. Maintenance was a big factor in our decision. We considered carefully deconstructing the redwood and flipping it to use the other side, but the wood was brittle and we would have salvaged only a small fraction; and then we would have been soon in the same boat -- needing to restain it every few years to maintain adequately. We're not good at that, and we're not going to get better about maintenance as we get older!