I'm looking for the experience and/or advice of the board. Store salespeople often have a conflict of interest, and I trust y'all to give it to me straight!

We are about to replace 600-700 sf on our back porch deck with some alternative to wood. I'm wondering what material would meet our needs best. We're even open to replacing with concrete. Some particulars:

-Located in College Station, TX
-Area receives sun about 50-75% of the time
-Looking for low maintenance+durability (we're plant people, but we tend to neglect deck maintenance)
- We like the look of wood, but are open to anything that doesn't look totally artificial/cheap.
-There is a possibility that we'll be breaking the deck into to independent sections with a ~160 sf garden in the middle.

We'll be having some folks give us estimates soon, but we are overwhelmed with the options!

Thanks in advance!

Composite Decking gets unbelievably hot in the summer sun.

Go get some samples of timber tech and azek decking. Timbertech is composite and azek is 100% PVC. Both get hot but the azek is much lighter and has less heat retention. McCoy's has samples and you can go on Timbertech and azek website and they will send you some free.

Our Azek deck is in year 5 and we are still very pleased with it. Would only go with 100% PVC, because the Trex, etc composite brands with wood fibers will eventually soften, slightly swell, and fade compared to a 100% PVC product.

Read the warranty carefully. Some composite product require yearly cleaning. They change terms frequently as problems arise. Plastics also shrink and swell a lot. You might hear you deck popping in the morning and evening.

Please don't ever assume that there is a maintenance free solution. Everything needs maintenance. Even concrete.

If one does something do it well. Go with Ipe.