i had fir that we painted with porch paint. we painted it again after 10 years when we sold the house, otherwise it had a few more years on it. mostly we didnt drag the chairs around unnecessarily but it was wet all the time and snow stood on it all winter.

I am not a fan of composite decks. They can get real hot. They can't get refinished. If the color is discontinued and some planks need to be replaced, you are screwed.

I would do wood. And some woods are flat out expensive. For my money, I would use pressure treated pine. Behr Premium at Home Depot has a Weather Proofing product for decks, fencing and siding that is available in solid color, semi-transparent and transparent. There is a base product that coloring is added to. Several standard colors. You can save with 5 gallon buckets. It has a 10 year warranty on decks, 25 years on vertical surfaces. Haven't used it personally but a neighbor recently did on a shed. Worth checking out. On a covered porch, I think it would last past 10 years.

10 year warranty is for solid color. Good range that includes grays, blues, Browns, redwood and cedar tones, barn red, and yellow.

On your projects, has the ipe been installed like a deck or tongue and groove? I looked at the link you suggested-sounds like a lot of maintenance

We have installed it in a deck fashion instead of tongue and groove. There is maintenance but that will be much the same for most products besides composite products.

I have a azek deck that is nothing short of remarkable considering its the third summer and it doesn't look any different than when I installed it. Maintenance is next to zero, but Hal Braswell was right on when he mentioned it gets hot in direct sun. I can't imagine having a wood clad deck or wood railing ever again.

We used pressure treated and had an oil finish applied

There is so many manufacturers who sell Composite T&G Porch flooring, Harmony porch flooring, Aeratis porch flooring, Azek porch flooring, Wolf porch flooring, Nylo porch flooring, just to name a few.

Most local suppliers deal with one or two companies who make Composite T&G flooring because this is a very popular replacement porch decking material involving remodeling projects on homes that date back to the 20's, 30's,40's where most porches had T&G flooring and now they're due for replacement.

Good luck

Aeratis is pvc and not composite. We are thinking about it for our next project as it seems so insanely low maintenance.