I just did a deck over that I built 20 years ago. I built the frame like a rock with 2x10' so that was fine. I used Mahogany for the decking and the first 5 years I treated it with Thompson's water seal and it looked great. The next 10 years it was rented so I never went over to treat it. Many of the Mahogany boards dried out and split. Some rotted in spots that held water. I managed to buy some used Mahogany boards on Craigslist that were already weathered and I replaced the boards that were bad and treated the decking again with Thompson's.
The railing I made out of fir and painted white. It needed to be washed every few years as it would get black with mildew. It eventually rotted away and I replaced it with Pressure treated 2x4's and black aluminum balusters. I don't plan on staying here much longer so I wasn't going to spend the extra to do it all over in plastic.
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