AS Always, when that rag comes out many Folks are at a loss to understand the yearley deck piece.

CR is a total liberal,green mafia, we want it to all stop,every one should live in a cave eating diet watercress, out of contact with the real world thing.

They will recomend a Yugo over any truck. The testing they do is completly slanted into the polictal vunnel they call home.

For the most part when it comes to cars,decking,outdoor finish or anything that wont fit into the liberal format,dont belive anything they say. John

Hyatt,
Why should anyone believe what you have to say. You can't even spell, (only 11 typos in this latest blog), which means you might not be able to read. Let the consumers gather the information and decide for themselves. Give some people credit. They ask one question and you have to get on some political bandwagon. Quit talking like a know-it-all.
Now don't call me names anymore or I tell my mommy on you.

Liberal? Do you even know what the word means?

Thats all I got to say bout that,do a search on this site for more info. The zults will be the same. In fact just ask cr about the testing they will say the same thing. The last go around they recomened pt lumber over Ipe.

Dont shoot the Mesenger. J.

I gotta tell you - the last consumer report I read about stains and paints made my eyes bulge! The little teeny tiny print about what the parameters were during testing cleared things up a bit but all in all, I felt they were misleading...and not the best for consumers at all. Our "fact finding" comes from real life application and maintenance, not nicely boxed up testing.

With that said, a friend of ours went to her friends house last weekend to view their new deck. She has the Tamko stuff as her rail system. My friend said those railings LOOKED like utter crap (terminology altered!) It was only a week old, looked filthy dirty and really cheap, felt cheap...that's a homeowner unsolicited opinion.

The best advise I would want to put out is (a) don't pay attention to reports (consumer or otherwise) that can hardly be unbiased when not everyone is involved in testing (b) don't talk to sales people since they have a vested interest and (c) talk to people that install it, or have it, or have to maintain it....those will be your true knowledgeable stories :)

Celeste

Here is a link that might be useful: Ask Professional Deck Builders Opinions

Here's a recent thread that addresses one of the products you listed:

http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/porch/msg0511265628209.html?6