Its all in the mix dirt. The wood fiber used in composite is not weather resistent the board counts on the plastic coating if that breaks down in the sun mold has a free lunch. Compaired to say Ipe that is mold/insect resistant clear thru.

t-junk hits the board right out of the excurder with water to cool it down quickley up against quality composite that is air dried for 7 hr or so. This goes a long way toward explaining why its mold problems come up from inside the board but altoghter tjunk is low quality from the plant right up to the business end. J.

... and that's the boiler plate explanation from the wood worker side. I have a four year old Trex deck that I've never had any problem with. Trex sells millions of dollars of decking every year. If there were some inherent problem with all that decking I suspect it would be all over the evening news. BUT, Trex isn't HARD, it can mark from dragging stuff across it, so with dogs or little children I think I would move on to another brand. pic....

Here is a link that might be useful:

It depends on geographical location as to whether trex or any other composite will work/hold up in your area. Do your homework and see if it is a problem in your climate zone. With wood, it's all about maintenance. With composites, it's all about where you live and those conditions, so get opinions from reputable builders, deck builders, neighbors, etc. and get their take on it. You can dime down a product all you want if you are in one area where it doesn't work. Doesn't meant it's a no go elsewhere. You can call a turkey "jive" when it might be just a turkey. Just like "one coat" paints, I dont belive there are "maintenace free" materials, so composites require a certain amount of maintenance/care.

The Trex Company's annual sales are about $330 million. It seems to me that if what they were selling was complete junk they would have been out of business years ago. Of course, Americans bought some 141,000 Yugos. :-)

I included a link to the complaint of the current class action lawsuit. What's interesting is that in the complaint, the plaintiff references member comments made about Trex in unnamed online discussion groups.

Here is a link that might be useful: Trex Class Action Lawsuit

Guys, I have already been thru all the Lawyer talk included in the t=junk warrenty, as many thousand of really unhappy Wallets over 30 years + After all the legal action brought to harm on that Co ..... I my own self am done with this Shittola on this site.

The reason T=junk keeps selling is >>>>>They adverstse and they have an oil co behind them

Actually John, the current Trex company was formed in a leveraged buyout from Mobil Oil in 1996, so they've been on their own for quite a while now. I don't know much about their warranty other than it seems to include only the materials, not the cost of replacing it. How does that compare to other manufactured decking materials? Of course, covering only materials isn't exactly uncommon. The fine folks at KitchenAid are willing to buy me a new control board for my range but not pay for the labor to put it in. Western Digital warrants their drives for 5 years but they aren't going to pay for data recovery if their drive craps out in that time period (nor the labor to install the new drive).

I don't have any interest in the Trex company (financial or otherwise) but it seems to me that you can't sell hundreds of millions of dollars of complete garage year after year and still stay in business, no matter how much you advertise. If every one of the decks you built this year failed, do you think you would be in business next year, much less a decade from now?

If you don't like Trex, that's fine with me and quite frankly I probably wouldn't use it for my house. All I'm asking if there might be a little more to the story that isn't being told. After all people are something like ten times more likely to complain that praise.

Those are all good points Mike. J.

I recommend looking at the thread "were the Trex mold issues resolved?" before getting Trex. It is beautiful stuff but it took me way too long with little help besides a lady on that thread to figure out how to clean it.

Much to my dispare, Trex is NOT maintenance free.

Another thing to be really careful of with Trex and I imagine any plastic-based decking is that it is NOT strong and will sag if it isn't installed level and plumb. I approved the contractor reusing the lumber in the joists from an old balcony. Bad mistake. That portion of the deck has some nasty sags and the railings are affected. DO IT RIGHT or live with the consequences.