On Mon, 01 Oct 2012 12:56:48 -0400, Bob wrote:

Hello,

Thinking of redoing my Deck with possibly TREX, or just pressure treated
wood.

a. Are there different quality levels (and/or Brands) for the
usual pressure treated wood you see e.g., at HD ?

Definitely a WIDE variance in quality of both the wood and the
treatment.

b. What type of pressure treated wood would I want to specify:
Pine, or...? Live in New England.

Southern Yellow Pine is pretty decent. Non treated Cedar is better -
again if you can get good stuff

c. Any thoughts on TREX ?
Others to consider ?

I used TREX on my front poarch, SYP on my reas deck, and Western Red
Cedar on the deck I just did for an old friend.

d. How much more, approx., to go with TREX, or its competitors, vs the
pressure treated wood approach ?

Just over double the cost of PT, half again the price of Cedar - and
that was for the Trex Transcend. I wouldn't use the standard Trex,
myself - mostly due to mold and moss issues at my location. The
Transcend is great stuff!. I was lucky enough to get mostly pretty
decent cedar for the latest deck job - and I'd say cedar is the nicer
of the three to work with - I had natural cedar on my front porch for
twenty-some years - the Trex should outlast it and is definitely lower
maintenance. The last deck replacement the old cedar was 42 years old
and had been stained quite a few times.

Thanks,
Bob