Every year in early April the same conversation starts happening on our quote calls. Homeowner finally admits that the deck the previous owner built is getting soft underfoot, or that the PT boards they laid themselves in 2012 are splitting at the ends, or that Karen next door just put in a Trex deck and now theirs looks wrong.
The question that follows is always the same: cedar, composite, or pressure-treated. We've built several hundred decks in all three and torn out failed examples of all three, and we have real opinions with receipts. Here's what we'd pick for our own houses, and why.
Before we get into it — this comparison is about the decking surface and railings, not the frame underneath. The frame under any good deck in Ontario is pressure-treated lumber, 2x10 joists on 12" or 16" centres, helical pile footings, 316 stainless hardware at the contact points. That part doesn't change regardless of which material is going on top. For the footing decision, see our writeup on helical piles vs concrete sonotubes in Ontario.
If a contractor is trying to upsell you "cedar frame construction" they are either lying or they are about to build you a deck that rots in the wrong place. Moving on.
Western red cedar — the case for and against
Western red cedar decking is the material we'd put on our own houses most of the time. It's warm underfoot in summer, it doesn't stain your dog, it handles Ontario freeze-thaw cycles better than PT and looks better than composite, and when you walk on it barefoot in July you can tell it's wood. The rings are there, the smell is there on a hot day, the way it weathers to silver-grey if you stop staining it is there. Nobody walks onto a cedar deck and says "huh, plastic."
The honest downside of cedar is maintenance. A cedar deck in the GTA needs a good penetrating stain every 18 to 24 months to keep its warm tones, and you have to use a proper oil like Penofin, Sikkens SRD, or Sansin Dec — not the solid-color latex stain that blows off in three winters. That's a weekend of work every other year.
Some homeowners enjoy it as a ritual, some resent it. We have had clients on both ends of that spectrum tell us the same thing: cedar looks the best on day one and six months before the next stain, and it looks tired in the gap. Plan your stain schedule or plan to feel bad about your deck in May.
- Warmest look and feel of the three materials, especially fresh-stained
- Natural insect and rot resistance from the heartwood oils — no chemical treatment needed
- Expansion and contraction across seasons is mild — boards stay flat if stock was kiln-dried
- Requires re-staining every 18–24 months with a penetrating oil finish in the GTA
- Cost: $18,500 to $24,500 CAD installed for a 14x20 deck (2026 GTA pricing)
- Honest lifespan in Ontario weather: 22 to 28 years on a well-framed deck with regular maintenance
Composite (Trex, TimberTech, and the cheaper stuff we don't recommend)
Composite decking in 2026 is three categories pretending to be one. The top tier is TimberTech Advanced PVC (Vintage, Legacy, Landmark collections) and Trex Transcend — fully capped, fade-resistant, 50-year warranty, and the expensive one. The middle tier is TimberTech Pro and Trex Enhance Naturals — capped on three or four sides, 25- to 30-year warranty, and where most of our composite work lives. The bottom tier is uncapped or partially-capped composite from a big-box store that we won't install because we've torn too much of it out around year five.
The real case for composite is that you buy it once, you never stain it, you pressure-wash it twice a year, and you stop thinking about your deck. For homeowners who bought the house for the backyard, not for the weekend project, that's the whole pitch and it's a genuinely good one.
We have clients in Mississauga who sent us a photo of their eight-year-old Trex deck last summer that looks identical to the day we installed it. We have never gotten a photo like that of an eight-year-old PT deck. Not once.
The honest downsides: composite runs hot on a south-facing deck. A grey or tan Trex surface can hit 60°C in direct July sun, which is enough to be uncomfortable barefoot. TimberTech Advanced PVC and some of the lighter-color Trex lines run cooler, but "cooler" is still warmer than cedar. If your deck is fully sun-exposed all afternoon and you have kids who live outside in bare feet, factor that in.
Also — composite has an unmistakable visual language, and a lot of people don't like it. It looks like composite. It doesn't try not to. You either make peace with that on day one or you spend three summers wishing you had. For a line-item comparison of the three materials on the same frame, see what a custom deck actually costs in the GTA in 2026.
- Zero annual maintenance beyond pressure-washing — real selling point
- Trex, TimberTech Pro/Advanced, Azek, Fiberon are the brands we install; we avoid uncapped bargain lines
- Requires 12" OC framing for most capped composite — adds framing cost and must be planned from day one
- Runs hot in direct sun on dark colors — pick light colors for south-facing or fully-sun decks
- Cost: $22,800 to $29,500 CAD installed for a 14x20 deck (2026 GTA pricing)
- Honest lifespan: 25 to 35 years on the top-tier lines, 18 to 25 on mid-tier capped composite
Pressure-treated — the honest case
Pressure-treated deck boards are the cheapest option, and we're not going to pretend they're the best option, but we're also not going to pretend they're garbage. A 14x20 PT deck built on a proper frame with 316 stainless hardware will give you 12 to 15 good years if you stain it every two years, and if you really push that with annual maintenance you'll get 18. That's a 15-year deck for about $17,000 CAD, which pencils out to roughly $1,100 a year. Not bad.
The reason we tell honest PT clients to think of it as a phased decision is that at year 12 or 13, the boards start cupping, the stain won't penetrate evenly anymore, and the deck starts looking tired even when you keep on top of it.
What you do at that point is you pull every deck board, you leave the frame in place, and you 'reskin' with cedar or composite. That reskin runs about $9,000 to $14,000 depending on the material — call it 40 to 50 percent of a new deck. So a client who does PT now and reskin in year 13 spends the same total as a client who does composite on day one, but spreads it across two cheques ten years apart. For some homeowners that cash flow is the whole point.
What we won't do on a PT deck: we won't cut the frame to a cheap spec to save another thousand bucks, we won't use galvanized hardware where stainless belongs, and we won't quote you 16" joist spacing if the span reads long. PT is cheap on the surface, not cheap on the structure. Anybody quoting you a $10,000 PT deck installed in the GTA is taking a foot off the frame, and the foot they take off is going to show up on a snow day in year nine.
| Attribute | Cedar | Composite | Pressure-treated |
|---|---|---|---|
| Upfront cost (14×20) | $18.5k–$24.5k | $22.8k–$29.5k | $14.8k–$18.6k |
| Maintenance | Annual stain | None | Annual stain |
| Lifespan (top surface) | 20–25 years | 25+ years | 10–15 years |
| Best use | Traditional look, annual ritual ok | Set and forget | Budget + phase later |
What about the newer materials — bamboo, Ipe, thermally-modified?
Every few months a client asks about Ipe, bamboo, or thermally-modified ash (Thermory is the common brand in Ontario). These are all real options, and we've installed them, but they're specialty situations. Ipe is the densest of the group, lasts 40+ years, looks spectacular, and costs roughly twice what cedar costs per square foot. Thermally-modified ash is the interesting middle-ground option — a sustainable North American hardwood, stable across seasons, about 30% more expensive than cedar, and we like the way it ages. We specify it on about one deck a year, usually for architectural clients who've already decided before they called.
Bamboo decking we don't recommend in Ontario. It's sold hard at big box stores, it looks nice in the display, and we've torn out three installs that swelled, cupped, and cracked within five Ontario winters. The freeze-thaw cycle up here is more aggressive than what the bamboo was engineered for in California. If someone offers you bamboo decking in the GTA, walk away.
“We went with cedar and I haven't regretted it once. The staining weekend is honestly the most relaxing thing I do all summer.”
The honest summary: there is no wrong answer in this comparison — only mismatches between the material and the homeowner. A cedar deck is wrong for somebody who hates maintenance. A composite deck is wrong for somebody who wants their backyard to feel like a forest. A PT deck is wrong for somebody who hates the idea of a reskin in year 13.
Pick the mismatch you can live with and the deck will be fine. All three of these materials on a properly built frame will be there in 20 years. What differs is the version of you that's going to be looking at it.
