Trex, TimberTech, Fiberon, Deckorators: what actually differs between the composite brands

Capped composite is what people usually mean now. The core is wood fiber bound in plastic, and a polymer shell called the cap is wrapped around it. The core gives the board its bulk and its feel underfoot. The cap is the surface you see, walk on, and clean.

Uncapped composite is the same kind of core with no shell. It is the older style, and a lot of composite's early reputation for staining, mildew spots, and fading traces back to it, because the wood fiber sits right at the surface where water and sun can reach it. You can still find uncapped boards at the low end of the market, so it is worth asking directly rather than assuming.

Cellulose-free PVC has no wood fiber at all. The board is plastic through the core, usually with its own cap on top. TimberTech sells its PVC boards as Advanced PVC, and some of the other brands sell a PVC line of their own. PVC and composite are not two grades of the same thing. They are different materials that happen to be sold in the same aisle, and a bid should never be vague about which one it means.

On a capped board, the cap is the wear layer. It is what resists a spilled drink or a planter stain, what holds the color against hard sun on the walking surface, and what keeps water from soaking into the wood fiber in the core, which matters in a climate with freeze-thaw cycles every spring and fall. Caps are not identical across lines. Some lines wrap the cap around all four sides of the board and some leave the underside open, and cap formulations differ in how they handle scratches and fading. Those differences show up in the manufacturer's published warranty for that line, which is where you should read them rather than on a sales sheet.

The cap also sets one hard limit: it cannot be sanded or refinished. A deep gouge through it shows the core, and the color you pick is the color that cap has to hold for the life of the deck. For how composite and wood each behave through the seasons here, and the upkeep each asks for, see how composite and wood decking hold up in a South Dakota climate.

Trex, Fiberon, Deckorators, and TimberTech each organize their decking into lines, from an entry board up to a premium one, and each publishes its own warranty document and its own span table for every line. We are not going to summarize another company's warranty or specs here, because they change and because the document itself is what a claim gets judged against. Ask for it by line name and read it.

TimberTech is the easiest example for us to use because we work in it. Its base composite collections are Prime, Prime+, Premier, and Premier+. Its premium composite collections are Legacy, Reserve, Terrain+, and Terrain. Its Advanced PVC collections are Vintage, Landmark, Harvest, Harvest+, and Solstice. Each group carries its own product warranty terms, and the labor warranty described further down treats base and premium differently too.

The practical lesson is to compare tier against tier. An entry line from one brand against a premium line from another is not a brand comparison at all. When you read two warranties side by side, look at what they cover, such as fading, staining, and structural failure, whether the coverage is prorated after the early years, and whether labor to replace a defective board is included or left to you.

A bid that names only the category leaves the bidder free to put any board in that category on your deck, and that covers the whole range from uncapped to premium. Two quotes can both say composite and be pricing different materials with different caps, different warranties, and different framing requirements underneath. Neither contractor is necessarily hiding anything. They just did not write it down, and you cannot compare what is not written.

The fix is simple and it costs nothing. Every quote should name the brand, the line or collection, and the color, and the same for the railing if it is part of the job. Once that is in writing, the board on your deck is a known product with a known warranty and a known span table, and a substitution becomes a change you have to agree to rather than something you find out about later.

Brand is on the list, but it is rarely the item that moves a composite quote the furthest. These are the decisions that do, and every one of them should be visible in a written estimate.

Each manufacturer publishes a span table for each of its boards, and the tables are not interchangeable between brands or even between lines from the same brand. The joist spacing your deck needs comes off the table for the board you actually buy, read against the adopted local code and confirmed at inspection. That is why swapping brands after the framing is priced is not a paperwork change. A different board can call for a different spacing, and a different spacing is different lumber, labor, and blocking.

For us the frame is core work, and it gets built the same way no matter whose name is on the boards: footings below the frost line, the ledger flashed so water cannot sit against the house, the rim joist checked before anything is bolted to it, and joists laid out to the published table for the board you chose. If you are still deciding between two brands, tell us during the walkthrough so the estimate reflects the one you land on.

Hols & Co is registered with TimberTech at the Gold tier of The Board. TimberTech registers contractors; it does not certify them, so we describe ourselves as a TimberTech PRO Gold contractor and nothing more. TimberTech is the program we are registered with, wood decks are still core work, and we will price Trex or another line if that is what you want.

The TimberTech Limited Replacement Labor Warranty pays the labor to replace boards on a product-defect claim. It is not a workmanship warranty, and we will not describe it as one. At the Gold tier it runs ten years on Advanced PVC and the premium composite collections with TimberTech fasteners, and twelve years with a full TimberTech railing system. Base composite runs six and eight years on the same terms. Those terms assume wood framing.

Read the conditions before you count on it: TimberTech fasteners, a full TimberTech rail system for the rail term, installation to TimberTech's published guidelines, both warranties registered by you, and a build completed after June 25, 2026. On another brand's boards, that manufacturer's own warranty applies and TimberTech's labor warranty does not.

The same list, in the same order, to every contractor you talk to. Which brand, line, and color, for the decking and for the railing, in writing? Which fastener system, and is it the manufacturer's own? Which span table did you frame to, and what joist spacing does it call for on this board? Is the border or seam layout included, with the blocking under it? Who registers the warranty, and when? If a board turns out to be defective, who pays the labor to pull it and put a new one down, and who do I call first? Who is pulling the permit?

A bidder who answers all of that on paper has handed you a quote you can compare. Jace walks the site himself, writes the estimate with the brand, line, color, fastener system, and framing spelled out, and runs the build. To set up a walkthrough, call or text (605) 679-5223.