Composite or cedar is the second question we get on every deck estimate, right after the price. Both can make a great deck in Oakland County. The difference is what your weekends look like five years from now, and how the surface handles a Michigan winter. Here is the honest comparison.
The quick version
Cedar is a real wood with a warm look and a lower up-front price, and it needs cleaning and refinishing every two to three years to stay that way. Composite is a wood-and-plastic or capped-polymer board that costs more up front, never needs stain, and carries a long surface warranty. If you love the look and feel of real wood and do not mind the upkeep, cedar is a fine choice. If you want to build it once and forget it, composite wins.
How each handles Michigan weather
Michigan decks live through snow load, ice, spring rain, and hot July sun, sometimes all in the same month. Cedar is naturally rot-resistant, which is why it has been used for decks for decades, but water still finds its way into unsealed end grain and around fasteners. Left unsealed, cedar grays, checks, and starts to splinter within a few seasons. Composite does not absorb water, so freeze-thaw does not split it and snow shovels do not tear it up. The one knock on composite is that darker colors get hot in full sun, which matters on a south-facing deck in Novi or Farmington Hills.
Maintenance, honestly
- —Cedar: wash and refinish every two to three years. Expect a weekend of work or a few hundred dollars in labor each time. Skip it and the deck ages fast.
- —Composite: soap and water once a year. Capped composite from Trex, TimberTech, or Azek resists staining and fading, and most lines carry 25-year or longer surface warranties.
Cost over twenty years
Cedar decking costs less per square foot to install. Composite typically adds a meaningful premium on the material line. But if you refinish a cedar deck six or seven times over twenty years, the stain, cleaner, and labor usually erase that gap and then some. Cedar is cheaper to build. Composite is usually cheaper to own.
What matters more than the decking
Whichever surface you choose, the deck lasts as long as the structure under it. Footings below the 42-inch frost line, a properly flashed ledger, and hardware rated for Michigan winters decide whether the deck is still flat and tight in ten years. We build every deck the same way underneath, whether the boards on top are cedar or composite, and we grade and drain the soil around the footings so water moves away from the house.
Building a deck in Walled Lake, Commerce, Milford, or elsewhere in Oakland County? We carry samples of both and will tell you straight which one fits your budget and how much upkeep you actually want.