My original deck was built in 1990 with PT bones and cedar decking and elements. All of the cedar literally starting falling apart all at once in the summer of 2008. I tore off all the cedar in the spring of 2009. It lasted 20 years but still seemed to fall apart sooner than we had expected, especially since it had regular upkeep.

About 95% of the deck frame was still as good as new. A few sisters were added on the double deck octagonal footprint to fix a few frame sections due to surface rot right at the point of the cedar decking contact (the PT frame itself was still plenty strong)..

We agonized for months on what to replace the cedar with. We could not bring ourselves to use any of the composites, plastics, or other man-made materials. We could not get anyone to assure us what these materials would look like in ten years. The plastic extruded stuff you can get at Lowe's looked like a disaster in the making due to its high expansion and my octagonal pie sliced segment design with butts everywhere. We watched a video of the stuff being walked on. Noisy, creaky, loud! No thanks!

We chose 5/4 x 6 IPE and we are glad that we did. It looks fantastic but does require that every screw be pre-drilled and use SS fasteners all around. We used SS cleats and cut biscuit grooves on the edges of the decking to hide the fasteners. We like it better than the cedar. I would not hesitate to use IPE again. It will require special coating with a hardwood stain/preservative. Every end cut must be coated in a water based paraffin wax to prevent splitting which is not really as difficult as it seems. The whole project took from early spring to late fall working in my spare time. We are extremely pleased! The only thing we "may" have considered had it come out a bit sooner is the new heat treated decking woods that have only recently become available.

If you want a natural look with a wood that will wear like iron and is extremely fire resistant, do not be shy about checking out IPE. The surface is extremely tough, no splintering or checking, no knots, no cupping on any spot on my deck, unlike the original 2 x 6 cedar decking.

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