We have a raised deck and usable patio underneath. It's about 20 years old and needs to get replaced. Now the dilemma is what kind of deck to choose. My neighbor has a sealed plywood deck that protects his patio underneath from rain. He has had zero issues in 20 years and hasn't had to do anything to it while we have continually had to replace and rebuild portions of our deck.

I want to go this same route in having a sealed plywood deck but when I ask new decking companies, they want to sell me of course the new style of "no maintenance" boards or IPE decking with a bladder system under it. I just get the feeling they want to sell me more expensive designs. Its truly about functionality vs fancy deck designs.

Any unbiased advice from the pros on here? We would like to have a nice deck where we don't have to worry about the lower patio being soaked.

thanks in advance.....