5 Best Composite Decking Brands of 2024

The company that invented composite decking in the late 1990s has been the category’s biggest innovator. Any shortcomings with its earliest products have been addressed, especially if you spring for its top-of-the-line Transcend Lineage Composite Decking.

The material isn't cheap, costing as much as premium wood decking, like Western cedar or ipe. But when we brought samples into the Lab for testing, the composite proved extremely resistant to staining and held up well in our impact tests, designed to simulate pounding hail or heavy objects getting dropped onto the surface. Trex backs its promise that the material won't rot, warp, crack, or splinter with a 50-year limited warranty. Though it does get a little slippery when wet.

As for aesthetics, our design experts were wowed by the subtle grain patterns across the Transcend Lineage’s five color options, a nice mix of browns, grays and beiges. “Love it!” said GH’s Home Design Director Monique Valeris. “The color options feel sophisticated, especially the brown shades, which are so rich. The pattern of the grain seems natural as well."

There’s a sustainability story here too, since Trex says its composite is made from 95% recycled content, including reclaimed sawdust mixed with the plastic film from old sandwich bags, newspaper sleeves and the like.

We like MoistureShield for its wide range of composite decking products to meet every budget. Though the brand has even less expensive options than its Meridian series, it’s our top value pick because it hits the sweet spot between cost and performance.

Based on Lab tests, the capped composite decking (meaning its composite core is protected by a polymer outer layer) should deliver exceptional durability and moisture resistance for many decades. The 50-year warranty shows the brand's willingness to stand behind that performance.

The decking's resistance to fire enables it to be listed as one of the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) Approved Products in California. Appearance-wise, its wood-grain finish and reduced pattern repetition create a convincingly natural look.

Choose from three colors: Citadel (a cool gray), Shoreside (a sandy blond) and Mariner (a dark brown). The Citadel and Shoreside lines offer CoolDeck technology, which the brand claims can reduces heat absorption, a benefit for homeowners in extremely hot regions. “While the color choices are limited, they are quite rich and sure to work with a variety of home styles,” said Valeris.

If you live in a region that gets a lot of rain, it’s important to choose a composite decking that’s built for moisture. We like this TimberTech because its textured, hand-scraped finish provides superb slip resistance, not to mention a depth of character and variegation.

The capped composite decking also does an excellent job fending off mold and mildew growth, which contribute to premature erosion. In our extensive Lab tests, the boards were extremely resistant to stains in our test, including tough ingredients like oil and mustard. The tradeoff for that durability is a hefty material that's harder to cut through.

The 5.5-inch-wide composite boards come in 12-, 16- and 20-foot lengths, and a blend of hues ranging from Whitewash Cedar to Espresso. TimberTech gets a check mark for sustainability too, since the company claims its USA-made composite decking consists of 85% recycled materials, including shrink wrap and laundry bottles. A 30-year warranty against staining and fading isn’t the industry’s best, but it still promises decades of services without signs of wear and tear.

Given its dense construction, composite decking tends to be heavy and hard to cut. That’s what we love about this mineral-based composite decking from Deckoreators. It uses a fiber-like structure to maintain exceptional strength while being about a third lighter than the competition. The claim checked out in our extensive Lab tests, but for good measure we had the decking installed by Fernando Pages, a Houston-based homebuilder and outside judge for our annual Good Housekeeping Home Reno Awards.

Pages confirmed that the Voyage decking is “lighter than most PVC and composite materials." He also reported virtually no expansion and contraction, which makes for an easier, more forgiving installation (though the flexibility of the material means extra care must be taken to keep them straight during installation).

And he liked that the decking can be installed directly on the ground or in water without voiding the warranty — good for coastal applications, or even for building directly on a lawn. (For more details, check out Pages' full documentation of the project on his YouTube channel.)

This competitively priced product comes in six colors, including grays and browns. The vertical grain design adds a bit of slip-resistance. We also like the variety of widths, from 3.5 inches up to 9.25 inches, which helps create visual interest.

I’m a big fan of deck tiles — a floating system in which the deck is installed above an existing substrate, like a brick patio or stone terrace. The tiles simply snap into plastic connectors, so the project is extremely DIY-friendly.

While we didn’t get hands-on with this version from NewTechWood in our Lab, it’s a good example of the simplicity of the system. The 1-square-foot tiles come 10 per box, so it’s easy to do the math to figure out what you’ll need to cover your deck (though the installation is relatively easy, I always tell people to add at least 25% extra material to account for mistakes in the field).

The UltraShield Naturale tiles come in close to 30 colors, from wood-look browns to bright pinks and blues for those looking to have more fun with the deck. Plus they can be laid out in visually interesting patterns, like checkerboard or parquet. We can’t speak to the performance of the composite, though it’s worth noting that the 10-year warranty is significantly less than other composites. But for a quick, easy and inexpensive makeover of an outdoor space, composite tiles are an excellent option.