I'm late to doing pre-winter projects, but gotta do something. Our
front entry currently has wood steps and landing with redwood/yuck
colored stain. Appears sound and in good condition. It is on the north
side of the house, so it gets icy and has no direct sun exposure. There
is no railing, which is the most important concern, but don't want to do
the railing and leave the ugly redwood there. The sides of the frame
are solid wood, and I'm thinking that once the boards for the steps are
removed we can attach more solid wood for framing and support for
railings. I do not like pvc, but have left-over bannisters/ballusters
from a fence we took out. I would prefer to use Trex for the surface
boards if it is sound/suitable/safe. Would Trex be more likely to get
mossy or slippery than wood?

I just started looking at railing materials online this morning, and it
looks like Trex has some neat looking stuff. We will go shopping later
to see what is available locally. The house is off-white T111 (I think)
with dark teal trim and shutters. I regularly salt the steps in winter
(this is only our second winter here)...if I leave the wood steps we
presently have, I'm thinking of drilling a couple of holes in each step
to help get rid of melt water that collects. We shovel as soon as it
snows, as I am paranoid about falling or having visitors slip and fall.
Would like to know experiences for similar situations.

I have a Trex deck and 4 stairs I built several years ago. and I am very happy with it. Snow has not been a concern, but the deck and stairs are on the south side of our house. I do like that I can shovel the snow off the deck and not have to worry about the shovel catching an edge like I would have to do if the deck were made of wood.