2026 · Written by the crew that installs it
A material guide that uses the manufacturers' own boards.
Colour names, recycled-content claims, and warranty terms are copied from Trex, TimberTech, and Fiberon — then priced the way we bid a job in the Lehigh Valley and Warren County.
Three questions. Then the board.
Budget, upkeep, and heat. Everything else — railing, lighting, a pergola — is a later conversation. If you cannot answer these, we will, on site, with samples in your actual light.
What will you spend per square foot installed?
Under $40 usually means wood. $43–70 is Trex Enhance, Fiberon Concordia, or TimberTech Prime+. $60 and up is Transcend, Signature, or TimberTech Advanced PVC.
Will you stain it?
If the honest answer is no, do not buy cedar because it looked warm in a photo. Composite and PVC exist for that answer.
Do people walk on it barefoot in July?
Stay off the dark walnuts and lavas unless the deck is mostly shaded.SunComfortable colours reduce heat build-up by up to 35°F compared with Trex's original boards. Select Cool Touch colours of TimberTech Advanced PVC stay up to 30° cooler than traditional composite decking.
Trex
Four lines we install. Enhance is the volume board. Select is the solid profile. Transcend and Signature share a 50-year residential term — you are paying for grain, not extra years. We are listed as TrexPro Platinum on trex.com.
Enhance
The line we install most. Scalloped, light, and priced closer to wood.
$43–70/sq ft installed
Cinnamon Cove
SunComfortable
Honey Grove
SunComfortable
Golden Hour
SunComfortable
Tide Pool
SunComfortable
Pebble Beach
SunComfortable
Foggy Wharf
Rocky Harbor
Toasted Sand
Clam Shell
Saddle
Select
Solid board, not scalloped. Ten more years of warranty than Enhance.
$43–70/sq ft installed
Saddle
Malted Barley
Millstone
Pebble Grey
Whiskey Barrel
Transcend
Tropical hardwood streaking and Trex's 50-year residential term.
$65–90/sq ft installed
Spiced Rum
Havana Gold
Island Mist
Lava Rock
Rope Swing
Tiki Torch
Signature
Trex's flagship grain, in two colours, with the same 50-year term as Transcend.
$65–90/sq ft installed
Whidbey
Ocracoke
TimberTech
The name covers two materials. Vintage, Landmark, and Harvest are Advanced PVC — no wood fiber, limited lifetime product warranty, 50-year fade & stain, Class A flame spread on Vintage. Prime+ is capped composite with a 25-year term prorated from year 11. If a salesperson says "TimberTech has a lifetime warranty," ask which collection.
Vintage
Advanced PVC · $60–85/sq ft installed
- Cypress
Mahogany
Coastline
Weathered Teak
Vintage is TimberTech's designer Advanced PVC collection: highly colour-blended, wire-brushed, and made of recycled polymers with no wood fibers. It will not absorb moisture, splinter, or rot.
Landmark
Advanced PVC · $60–85/sq ft installed
American Walnut
Boardwalk
Castle Gate
French White Oak
Landmark is Advanced PVC with a Limited Lifetime product warranty and 50-year fade & stain. The palette runs from American Walnut to French White Oak — less tropical streaking than Vintage.
Harvest
Advanced PVC · $55–80/sq ft installed
Kona
Slate Gray
Brownstone
Harvest is TimberTech Advanced PVC with a cleaner, less variegated grain than Vintage. Same Limited Lifetime product warranty and 50-year fade & stain.
Prime+
Composite · $40–65/sq ft installed
Dark Cocoa
Sea Salt Gray
Coconut Husk
Prime+ is TimberTech's mid composite line. It is not Advanced PVC: the product warranty is 25 years, prorated from year 11. Still a capped board that will not need stain.
Fiberon Concordia
Concordia is Fiberon's premium PE composite: a wood-plastic core with a four-sided PermaTech cap, reversible, with a flat-profile bottom. Three collections — Horizon, Symmetry, and Astir — share the same warranty. Horizon, Symmetry, and Astir are collections inside Concordia — not separate warranties.
$40–65/sq ft installed · 94% recycled wood and plastic
Horizon Ipe
Horizon Castle Gray
Symmetry Warm Sienna
Symmetry Graphite
Symmetry Burnt Umber
Astir Prairie Wheat
Astir Mountain Ash
Astir Seaside Mist
Wood
We still build it. We will not sell it as low-maintenance.
Pressure-treated pine
Southern yellow pine treated against rot and termites. It is the budget board. It will check, cup, and grey unless you clean and re-stain it every one to two years.
Limited structural warranty against rot and termites only — excludes labour, not transferable
Western red cedar
Western red cedar is naturally resistant to rot and insects. Left unfinished it silvers. Sealed, it keeps the warm red-brown. There is no manufacturer warranty — the WRCLA is a trade association, not a warrantor.
No manufacturer warranty
What PA and NJ actually do to a deck.
Eastern Pennsylvania and Warren County freeze, thaw, then sit humid. That cycle is why we default to capped composite or PVC on anything the owner does not want to stain. Snow load is a framing problem, not a board problem — the board still has to drain.
- Lehigh Valley. Enhance or Concordia for most houses. Vintage around a pool.
- Poconos. More snow, more UV at elevation. PVC or Transcend. Keep the colour lighter if the deck is a sun deck.
- New Jersey. Same freeze-thaw. Coastal towns add salt — composite and PVC both handle it; the hardware is what we change.
The warranty does not replace the board for free.
Every major manufacturer excludes labour. If a board fails in year eight, they will send a board. Someone still has to pull the railing, lift the deck, and put it back. That someone is us, which is why the TrexPro labour term exists — 5 years on decking, 10 years when Trex railing is part of the same system.
Wood: the pine tag covers rot and termites for the first owner. It does not cover the cupping you will actually call about. Cedar has no warrantor at all.
Read the document for the line you buy. We keep the current PDFs and will walk them with you before you sign.
Price the line you just read about
Pick a manufacturer line, set the size, and see a PA/NJ installed range. The full estimator on /cost-calculator adds shape, height, and railing style.
Board
Bring the boards into the room they will live in.
A consult is samples, a tape, and a straight answer on which line fits the house. No PDF stand-in.