Composite vs Wood Decks: Which Is Right for Your Western PA Backyard?

The three materials we install most

• Pressure-treated pine. $25–$40 per square foot installed in our area. Lasts 12–18 years with regular maintenance, 8–12 without. Cheapest by a wide margin.
• Cedar. $35–$55 per square foot installed. Beautiful, lighter than PT, naturally rot-resistant. Lasts 18–25 years with maintenance. Tends to gray out quickly in our climate.
• Composite (Trex, TimberTech, Fiberon). $55–$90 per square foot installed depending on line. 25–30+ year warranty. No staining, no sealing, no splinters.

What composite gets right

• Maintenance. Composite is genuinely low-maintenance. A pressure wash once a year and it looks like the day we installed it.
• Color stability. Modern capped composites hold their color through Pennsylvania UV and snow exposure. Wood always shifts color over time.
• No splinters, no rot, no carpenter bees. Carpenter bees are a real problem on PT decks in our area — composite doesn't have that issue.
• Resale. A composite deck typically returns 70–80% of its cost at resale in Western PA. PT returns 60–70%.

What wood still does better

• Up-front cost. PT is roughly half the install cost of mid-tier composite.
• Repairability. A single damaged PT board costs $20 to replace. A single damaged composite board can be $80–$150, plus you may not get an exact color match if the deck is more than a few years old.
• Heat. Dark composite gets noticeably hotter underfoot in August than wood. If your deck gets full south or west sun, this matters.
• Feel. If you have strong feelings about real wood, composite will never feel the same. That's a legitimate reason to pick cedar or PT.

What we usually recommend in Westmoreland County

For homeowners staying 7+ years who don't want to deal with sealing every other summer: mid-tier capped composite. The cost difference is recovered in maintenance and lifespan, and the deck still looks good in year 15.

For homeowners on a tight budget or planning to sell within 5 years: pressure-treated with a high-quality stain. Done right, it looks excellent and the cost is roughly half.

For homeowners who care most about how the deck looks: cedar, sealed every 2–3 years to slow the silvering. It's the prettiest of the three.

Structure matters more than surface

One thing most homeowners don't think about: the framing under the deck. We use pressure-treated framing on every deck regardless of surface material because it's the right structural choice for our climate. Joist spacing matters too — composite usually requires 12" or 16" on-center spacing instead of the 24" some PT decks are built on. If you're replacing a deck surface only, the existing framing may need upgrading first.