We are a deck design/build company, write for the decking industry and personally are an ocean person to lake convert(spouse induced). We specialize in both Trex & Azek/TT so can share some thoughts. The industry gets a lot of our data from Principia which do many comprehensive studies so you may want to check there for more information.
Whenever we design a project for the waterfront or pool environments (wet surfaces), we recommend the deepest woodgrain pattern which would be the Trex Transcend line. The cap is approx 3x thicker than others which allows the grain to be more pronounced thus giving a better grip. It's not that the others are bad or horribly slippery, it's just that Transcend has a deeper pattern. You really can not go wrong with either and the "good, better, best" are all good mostly having the same warranty.
As far as what's the difference between the "good, better, best"? Besides the colors(aesthetics), the caps durability increases as you go up the line. That is - the "best" has a harder shell/cap than the good or better thus less resistant to scratching. They will ALL scratch and scrape.
Lastly, studies confirm the darker colors will get hotter than the light colors (as much as double digit difference) so we generally encourage to go as light as you can when the project gets a lot of direct sunlight.
Again, as long as you stick with any of the top manufacturers, all are good choices.
|