Red cedar is most often used for fence boards ... Except for pallet wood, untreated hem-fir is the lowest-cost wood decking board. Because it is strong, it has a great joist distance span.

Standard 2X6 cedar decking boards cost between $4 and $8 psf ... and they resist color fading and generally outlast wood decking. That doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t stain them.

Decking comes with trade-offs depending on which brand, material, and species you choose. As a rule, wood tends to resist flexing better than composites. Composites, on the other hand, generally ...