I’m looking to either build or get a deck built using composite decking. Does anyone know of a good place to get said materials or some place that does it on the cheap? I have one quote for about 5-6k for a 12’x18’ deck and a few other in the 9k+ range (deckmasters)
If you sign up for a Home Depot CC you would get 10% off your purchase. For what its worth, Deckmasters did my deck in Dormont and did a very quality job. The home inspector was even impressed!
I used Trex (from Brookside Lumber in Bethel Park) and was very pleased. It’s easy to cut, you can route it, and now they now have an even larger choice of accessories like post caps, railings, trim.
I got a quote for my deck and decided to do it myself. Make sure you know the details of what they plan on doing. They were going to use 4x4 posts (which is acceptable but I wanted 6x6) and were going to bury them, but I wanted them sitting on the cement footers so they didn’t contact the ground. I was able to over-design it, use all stainless hardware (even joist hangers), and still save a lot of money.
With this new pressure treated lumber, I don’t know how well it stands up to ground contact. It’s also more corrosive to fasteners.
It comes down to how comfortable you are doing this work, what your time is worth, whether you like doing this stuff, and how picky you are. I’m picky. 
so as a ballpark, and if you don’t mind me asking, what size deck did you put on and about what did it cost you?
It’s about 14 x 24 with the boards on an angle, which has a little more waste. My spreadsheet from 2003 shows it was around $4000, which included about $1000 in stainless hardware, and pretty much everything else - decking, framing, hardware, concrete, a few tools like square drive bits (which I would recommend), some drill bits, plastic & stone for under it.
The Trex & pressure treated lumber was about $2700.
nice thanks. yeah if i can do it myself for around that that would be great. trying to save as much money as i can, but not trying to skimp of course.
Where in dormont do you live whitey? I have a house on Hillsdale
he has a duplex in Dormont. his house is in the North Hills
We’ve also been looking at building a deck this summer using the reclaimed plastic boards. I would just be a standard square deck with railing, two steps to the yard, and a grill pop out. The one big thing I liked was the hidden fastener system so you wouldnt have any exposed screws. Pretty neat stuff but damn $$$$ Looks like we’ll be going the traditional pressure treated wood deck route.