The four candidates, at a glance
In 2026, nearly every residential GTA deck is built from one of four materials. Each one is a different bet:
- Pressure-treated (PT) southern yellow pine — the cheapest option, the easiest to repair, and the one that needs the most attention. Still the default for budget builds.
- Western red cedar — the wood that looks like wood for longest without staining. Mid-priced. Soft, scratches easily, ages to a silvery grey if left alone.
- Composite (wood-plastic composite, WPC) — the modern mainstream. A wood-flour-and-polyethylene board, capped on the wear surfaces with a PVC shell. Trex, TimberTech, Fiberon, Deckorators.
- PVC (cellular polyvinyl chloride) — the all-plastic option. AZEK is the brand most people have heard of. Lighter than composite, more dimensionally stable, more expensive per square foot.
What the boards actually cost in 2026 GTA pricing
These are the per-square-foot decking-material costs we see in current Toronto-area quotes, board only, before fasteners and labour.
- Pressure-treated:$4.50–$7 per sq ft for 5/4″ × 6″ deck boards. Premium grades (kiln-dried-after-treatment or KDAT) run to $9.
- Western red cedar:$7–$12 per sq ft for 5/4″ decking-grade boards. Clear-vertical-grain runs higher; knotty appearance-grade is at the low end of the band.
- Mid-range composite (Trex Enhance, TimberTech Edge): $8–$11 per sq ft.
- Premium composite (Trex Transcend, TimberTech Advanced PVC, Fiberon Concordia):$11–$16 per sq ft. The line between “premium composite” and PVC is blurry — TimberTech’s top line is actually capped PVC.
- Cellular PVC (AZEK Vintage / Harvest / Arbor): $13–$19 per sq ft.
Multiply by 1.4–1.6 to estimate installed cost, since labour and fasteners scale with board count. The composite-vs-wood comparison tool does this math against a 10-year horizon, including maintenance, so you can see where each material actually lands as a total-cost decision rather than a sticker-price one.
The 10-year ownership picture
Up-front cost is one number; lifetime cost is the more useful one. The ranges below assume a 224-sq-ft deck in the GTA, no railing upgrade, normal homeowner-grade maintenance.
Pressure-treated, 10-year total
Build $7,500–$10,500. Maintenance $600–$1,400 over ten years (re-stain every 2–3 years, replace 1–2 boards). Total $8,100–$11,900. Best-case scenario for the budget-conscious owner who actually maintains the deck. Worst-case is the owner who doesn’t re-stain, in which case the boards check, crack, and need wholesale replacement around year eight.
Cedar, 10-year total
Build $11,000–$14,500. Maintenance $800–$1,800. Total $11,800–$16,300. Cedar can also be left to weather grey with no maintenance, in which case maintenance cost drops to near zero — but you trade for shorter functional life (warping and cupping after ~12 years) and a look that not every homeowner enjoys.
Mid-range composite, 10-year total
Build $14,500–$19,500. Maintenance $200–$500 (mostly cleaning). Total $14,700–$20,000. This is the bracket where composite starts to make financial sense — by year eight to ten, you’ve broken even with cedar on lifetime spend and you’re ahead on hours of work.
Premium composite or PVC, 10-year total
Build $19,000–$26,000. Maintenance $200–$400. Total $19,200–$26,400. You don’t buy premium composite to save money in year ten. You buy it because the board looks more like real wood, the warranty is longer (often 30–50 years on the surface), and you’re willing to pay for the visual upgrade.
How GTA climate punishes each material
Toronto’s freeze-thaw cycle — anywhere from 60 to 90 cycles per winter, depending on the year — is the single biggest test of any deck material. Materials fail differently under it.
- Pressure-treatedchecks (small surface cracks) and warps. The treatment chemistry is fine; the wood underneath isn’t. Annual re-staining slows this dramatically.
- Cedar handles the freeze-thaw cycle better than PT — the natural oils repel water — but cups across the grain when the board faces are wet for too long. Boards installed bark-side-up cup less.
- Compositeis hygroscopic — the wood-flour content absorbs and releases water — so boards swell and shrink lengthwise with the seasons. End-gap spacing matters more here than with solid wood. Get the manufacturer spec right and you’ll never notice; ignore it and you’ll get end-of-board buckling by year three.
- PVCdoesn’t absorb water, so it doesn’t swell. It does expand and contract with temperature — more than composite does — so the same gap-spacing rules apply, but the driver is thermal rather than moisture.
Warranty differences worth reading
Composite and PVC warranties are long and partial. Read what they actually cover before assuming a 25-year warranty means a 25-year deck.
- Trex Transcend: 25-year residential warranty, 25-year fade-and-stain. Pro-rated after year 10 — labour costs to remove and replace failed boards are not covered.
- TimberTech AZEK (PVC): Lifetime limited residential warranty on materials, 50-year fade-and-stain. Labour is reimbursed for the first ten years on the lifetime warranty.
- Fiberon Concordia:50-year limited warranty on materials, 25-year fade-and-stain. Like Trex, labour is owner’s responsibility in most failure modes.
- Pressure-treated:Most PT lumber comes with a lifetime warranty against rot from the chemical supplier (Wood Crest, AC2). It doesn’t cover checking, warping, or splitting — which are the failure modes you’ll actually encounter.
- Cedar:No manufacturer warranty in any practical sense. Cedar is a commodity wood; you’re relying on the contractor’s workmanship warranty.
The details that quietly matter
Joist spacing
Composite boards are softer than wood and have more deflection between joists. Most composite manufacturers require 12″ on-centre joist spacing for residential decks (16″ is allowed only for diagonal-pattern installations on some products). PVC is even more deflection-sensitive — TimberTech and AZEK both publish 12″ OC as the standard. Pressure-treated and cedar are fine on 16″ OC.
This is a hidden cost lever: a composite deck on the right joist spacing uses ~33% more framing lumber than a PT deck of the same size. Quotes that don’t reflect this are quotes that will produce a soft, bouncy deck.
Fasteners
Wood decks are face-screwed with coated deck screws (~$0.15 per board foot installed). Composite decks are almost always hidden-fastener systems — Trex Hideaway, CAMO, Eb-Ty — which take more labour but produce a clean face. Hidden fasteners add about $1.50–$3 per sq ft to the installed cost, and they’re essentially required for warranty coverage on most composite brands.
Board weight and movement
A 16-ft Trex Transcend board weighs about 38 lbs; the same 16-ft AZEK board weighs about 24 lbs. PVC is lighter, easier to handle, and moves more with temperature. Composite is heavier and moves less. Neither is “better,” but it changes the install choreography and explains why some contractors prefer one or the other.
How to pick, in plain language
After roughly a hundred GTA decks of every material, the working rule is:
- Budget under $12k installed, you maintain it yourself: pressure-treated. Re-stain every two summers. Expect 15–20 years before structural replacement.
- Mid budget, you love the look of real wood: cedar. Plan on re-staining annually for the first three years, then biennially. Expect 12–18 years.
- Mid-to-high budget, low patience for maintenance: mid-range composite. Yearly cleaning, no staining. Expect 20–25 functional years.
- High budget, premium aesthetic, “build it once”: premium composite or PVC. Modest cleaning. Expect 25–30+ functional years and a board face that still looks new at year ten.
The decisions earlier in this guide affect the right answer here: re-read the cost breakdownif you haven’t fixed a budget yet, and read Chapter V on maintenance before deciding which material’s maintenance load you can actually live with for the next decade.