How long does a deck last?
It depends on what you walk on — and on whether anyone will put their name to it. Six decking materials sit on the same axis below, each with the service-life figure its best available document actually states and, where one exists, the warranty term printed alongside it. Three of the six have no warranty at all, which is itself a finding: cedar, redwood and ipe are sold as graded lumber, and a grade stamp is not a promise.
Updated
Every material on one 80-year axis
Soft band: typical service-life range. Solid bar: the published warranty term. The difference between their right-hand ends is the story.
The numbers, with their sources
| Material | Service life | Warranty term | Source tier |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pressure-treated pine | ~15 yrs | “Lifetime” limited, non-transferable, conditional | Tier 3 · baseline chart (undated) |
| Composite decking (wood-plastic) | 8–25 yrs | 25-year limited, prorated, transferable, conditional | Tier 3 · baseline chart (undated) |
| PVC decking (cellular PVC) | 50+ yrs | “Lifetime” limited, transferable, conditional | Tier 1 · manufacturer document |
| Western red cedar | 15–25 yrs | — | Tier 2 · trade / standards literature |
| Redwood | 10–30 yrs | — | Tier 3 · baseline chart (2007) |
| Ipe | 25+ yrs | — | Tier 2 · trade / standards literature |
Two things stand out across the grid. First, the paper and the wood run in opposite directions. The only decking materials carrying long warranties are the industrially made ones — treated pine's "lifetime", composite's 25 to 50 years, PVC's lifetime — and every one of those terms is narrower than it sounds: treated pine's excludes splitting, checking, cupping, twisting and warping by name; Trex's pays a shrinking percentage from year eleven; TimberTech's excludes colour change, weathering, scratches and ordinary wear. The naturally durable woods carry no term and make no claims. Second, the further right you read, the thinner the evidence gets. Treated pine and composite rest on baseline charts that do not name a brand; cedar and ipe rest on durability classes measured on buried stakes rather than deck boards; PVC rests on the manufacturer's own estimate for a product that has not existed long enough to check it. The tier stamp on each page says which is which.