New Deck?

I'm now working on getting a contractor to refresh my existing deck --- new composite decking, new composite railing and a new flight of stairs to access my patio. As much as I would like to do the work myself (I have most of the tools), I simply do not have the time needed to get it done within a reasonable amount of time. I dread the idea of taking a week vacation working out in the sun every day... and likely still not being close to having it all done. That'd be hard to take and would drive my wife mad.

I have checked with four different sources and they all seem to be in the same ballpark. Mind you, it is an extremely expensive ballpark, but at least I am fairly confident that this is the "going rate".

The decking that I am thinking of using is TimberTech XLM Plank - expensive material, but more weather resistant, durable, stain resistant and really looks fantastic. Made of 100% PVC, it is very stable and seems like a significant improvement over the typical Trex material.

I have tried to take a picture of it below, but I don't think the photo really does it justice. As a point of comparison, the table that the sample is sitting on is polished, furniture grade cherry.


I need to do some on-line searching to see what others have thought of this material as compared to typical composite decking.

The railing that we are going to use is by TimberTech as well - called Radiance, it is really very nice. No maintenance, with a classic white finish. Beautiful.