The railing shown is made by Fiberon (provincial style) www.fiberondecking.com
The cable is made by Cable rail out of California www.cablerail.com (designrail)
All the holes needs to be drilled on site.
Check your county if cable rail is allowed because of the horizontal ladder type effect.
IRC 2012 will not allow a fixed bench in front of the railing at this height anymore.
Your inspector will start measuring from the bench height now and not from the deck.
Clemens

We're having one put on right now and the contractor is telling us that the joints are typically all placed on one end. Do you stagger the joints as necessary or is it typically all on one end?... We're having a heck of a time with quality of this material.

Hi Clemens, thanks for the response! This is our first deck remodel and were learning as we go! My husband wants the stagger, like a hardwood floors. We got the Ipe 7 color, so thought it would look nice and more uniform in an in-uniformed way. However, they've installed it all on one end, but now you're telling me that you normally want to avoid seams...! Also, it's wavy and I don't know if it settle or did they do it incorrectly? Yes, I'm in deck building hell!!... Thanks!

Feel free to contact me and/or send some pictures to give you more advice if needed. e-mail: finedecks@gmail.com
Thanks,
Clemens

To come back to one of your questions:
If the deck feels wavy it is probably that the joist are not all at the same level (top of the joist). A joist can vary in width. To do it correctly the joist (crown up) will first be nailed to the ledger all flush to the top, then joisthangers are installed. If you do the joisthangers first you can have significant difference in height. After these joist are installed correctly you still need to plane some joist to get rid of any bumps. Some have more crown than others. After this is done we install a rubber membrane on top of each double joist or any place where two boards are nailed together. This will prevent water from sitting in between what promotes rot. As you said you do have seams. If done correctly an additonal block is added to the joist where the two boards meet together, so each board rest on a full 2x. Composite material is very flexibel and will follow the joist. So if there is a difference in height then yes it feels and look wavy. Not much you can do after it is installed unless you take the boards out and do it over.
Pressure Treated lumber quality has been pretty bad in the last few years and is partially to blame and it is getting worse in the years to come and steel deck frames are getting more popular for this reason.
Hope this answers your question.
Clemens

Thanks so much Clemens for your insightful answers! We've mentioned the waviness of the floor to the contractor and told him we want that corrected! This contractor seem to be doing things backwards. We've had to tell them to do it right the first time and it will save a lot of time and money cause every time the crew leaves there's something wrong or done poorly. We're having them pull up the flooring and create more seams throughout the floor cause its what my husband wants. They said they will fix the wave also... I'm so scared that if I'm not on top of everything they'll just slap it together and cover up shoddy work!! I'm definitely learning a lot about contractors and the process. It just sucks that Im having to crash course myself on deck building! Thanks so much for your answers back!! Wish me luck!