The Most Durable Material For A Long-Lasting Deck
In some ways, choosing the best decking material based on its durability is like choosing your favorite band based on who has the best drummer. It's perfectly okay to be inflexible about both, but you'd better like jazz and the hollow ringing of rain on aluminum tubes. But for most of us, these preferences exist in a more nuanced context that takes into account other priorities. So, let's have a look at the most durable deck material, as well as the most durable option that you're likely to be happy with. For the most part, that means aluminum and composite decking, and here's why you might be happier with one of these durable alternatives over the other.
A lot goes into a deck material decision. You might care about any combination of durability, cost, ease of installation, ease of maintenance, aesthetics, sound characteristics, and other factors. Almost any decking material will give you reliable (though perhaps not maintenance-free) service for 10-15 years. If durability is a big concern for you, you are probably looking for something that will last considerably longer than that. And the thing is that even doubling the lifespan to 25 years or so doesn't eliminate too many possibilities. Ipe and some other hardwoods, composite decking, redwood, PVC, and other options will give you at least a couple of decades of service. If you're looking for truly exceptional durability, then, you might turn to aluminum.
Aluminum takes the prize, but might still lose
In a sense, building is the art of keeping water out of a structure, but decks are exposed to moisture nonstop. There's a chance the only place you've ever seen an aluminum deck is on the dock at a marina, which tells you a few things about the material. It's certainly .... durable. Estimates of how long an aluminum deck will last vary from 25-60 years, and aluminum decking is a new enough product that none of it has reached its limits yet, assuming it has any. In most objective lists it's the clear winner in terms of longevity. The reason is simply that it's basically not susceptible to water, which makes it impervious to rot and the various molds that degrade wood decks. Insects cannot infest aluminum, and they are a major cause of degradation for traditional decks. It's strong, won't burn, and can even withstand the abuse of dogs and most children.
It's not everyone's favorite choice, though, because aluminum decking is expensive and noisy. Interlocking boards that basically form a waterproof, self-draining floor can cost $40 or more per square foot, but standard gapped decking installations made of aluminum will run around $13 per square foot. It doesn't look like a wood deck, and doesn't feel or sound like one either, and this is off-putting to some. But its weaknesses don't generally fall into the durability category.
Here's the decking that lasts, and you'll actually like it
Anyone who does have an aluminum deck probably enjoys it... and certainly enjoys not having to do much or any maintenance to it. However, it's never going to be the most popular option. That brings us to composites, which are a complicated option, and there's a lot to learn about composite decking before you buy. It has many of the same benefits as aluminum, without a couple of key drawbacks.
Composite is billed as largely maintenance-free, at least in the current generation of products. Earlier generations of composite decking, through about 2010, were prone to surface mold and staining, which became a marketing talking point for manufacturers of competing products. Capped composite boards and those with mold inhibitors have largely resolved this issue, though mold can still grow on boards that aren't kept clean, given enough pollen or other organic materials. But current-generation composite decks are extremely durable products in terms of resistance to rot and insects.
There is another view that finds durability lacking not only when decking fails, but when it stops looking substantially like a new product. Wood decks must be cleaned, sanded, and restained periodically if you want to bring them back to a somewhat like-new state, but composites are expected to perform and look like new — years down the line — with little more than occasional cleanings. Older composite decking had some failings, like a tendency to fade with UV exposure or to sag in heat or when joist spacing wasn't close enough, but newer composites have mostly resolved these problems. Still, but research any product you're considering thoroughly. You can often gauge a manufacturer's confidence in a product by the details of their warranties.