- Elevating Exteriors – From Concept to Completion
- Elevating Exteriors – From Concept to Completion
Cedar decking is worth it if you want the look and feel of real Pacific Northwest wood and you're genuinely willing to clean and reseal it every year or two. If you'd rather build a deck once and mostly leave it alone through our long wet winters, a composite or capped-composite board will make you happier over ten years than cedar will.
Cedar has earned its reputation honestly. Western red cedar, which is what most local lumberyards stock, contains natural oils and tannins that give it a real (not marketed) resistance to rot and insects compared to plain fir or pine. It's light, easy to work with, holds a stain well, and it looks like it belongs here — because it does. A lot of the older farmhouses and craftsman homes between Mount Vernon and Bellingham were trimmed in cedar, and a new cedar deck tends to sit naturally next to that kind of house in a way a bright composite board sometimes doesn't.
The honest drawbacks matter just as much. Cedar is a softwood, so it dents and scratches more easily than composite or a hardwood like ipe. Boards will check (small surface cracks) and can cup slightly as they move with moisture, especially over a wet winter followed by a dry summer. Left unsealed, cedar turns a silvery gray within a year or two — some homeowners like that weathered look, but it isn't a neutral choice, and once it grays unevenly (more on the sunny side of the deck than the shaded side) it can look patchy rather than intentionally rustic. Clear, tight-grain cedar with few knots costs noticeably more than knottier construction-grade boards, and that price gap has widened as good cedar has gotten harder for mills to source. None of that makes cedar a bad material. It just means the "cedar is cheaper" argument only really holds at the checkout counter, not over the life of the deck.
Skagit, Island and Whatcom counties don't put the same stress on a deck that a hot, dry climate would, but our conditions have their own specific effects on cedar, and they're worth naming plainly.
Rain volume and duration. Our wet season runs roughly October through April, and it's less about downpour intensity and more about how long boards stay damp. Cedar that doesn't get a chance to dry out between rain events is more prone to mildew and surface graying, especially on the underside of boards and anywhere water tends to pool instead of drain. Deck framing with tight board spacing or poor airflow underneath is one of the most common causes of premature cedar failure we see on jobs from Burlington to Anacortes.
Shade and moss. The same tree cover that gives Sedro-Woolley, Camano Island and parts of Bellingham their character also keeps decks shaded and damp longer than an open lot would. We usually talk about moss in the context of roofs, but the same shaded, slow-to-dry conditions grow algae and light moss on cedar decking too, particularly on the north side of a house or under a mature fir canopy. A deck in full sun in Mount Vernon and a deck under conifers in Sedro-Woolley are not the same maintenance job, even though they're built from the same material.
Wind off the flats and the Strait. Open exposure across the Skagit flats, and stronger gusts on La Conner's waterfront and out toward the Strait of Juan de Fuca, mean fasteners and railing hardware take more cyclical stress than they would on a sheltered inland lot. Hidden fastener clips can work loose over years of that movement if they weren't rated for the span, and it's worth having a contractor check clip spacing on an older cedar deck rather than assuming it was done to spec originally.
Salt air on the islands. Camano Island, Guemes Island and the tidal edges around La Conner all get some degree of salt-laden air, and that air is hard on anything metal. Standard coated deck screws can start showing rust streaks into cedar within a few seasons near the water; stainless steel fasteners cost more up front, but they're the right call for any deck within a mile or so of saltwater.
Foothill freeze-thaw. Areas pushing up toward the Cascade foothills near Sedro-Woolley and Concrete see occasional hard frosts and light snow that the lowland parts of Skagit County mostly avoid. Repeated freeze-thaw cycling is what turns a small surface check in cedar into a real crack over a few winters, and it's also why deck footings in those areas need to reach the frost depth required under the Washington State Building Code and the International Residential Code as adopted locally — a shortcut on footing depth shows up as a wobbly or heaving deck long before the decking material itself becomes the problem.
If you're set on cedar, the decision that matters most isn't the wood grade — it's whether you'll actually keep up the maintenance schedule. Here's what a realistic plan looks like:
Alpine Exteriors builds and repairs decks across Mount Vernon, Anacortes, Burlington, Stanwood and the surrounding areas, and part of that conversation is always being straightforward about what a material will actually cost you in upkeep, not just at delivery. A deck estimate that doesn't mention a maintenance schedule for cedar isn't a complete estimate.
With regular sealing and reasonable drainage underneath, a well-built cedar deck in Skagit, Island or Whatcom County can hold up for a couple of decades. Skip the maintenance and let it sit damp and shaded for years at a time, and you'll likely be dealing with soft spots, checking and rot well before that. The wood itself is durable; what shortens its life here is almost always moisture management, not the cedar being a poor choice to begin with.
Not every single year, but close to it — most cedar decks in our area need a fresh coat of sealer or semi-transparent stain roughly every 1 to 2 years to keep water from soaking into the grain during our wet season. A deck in full sun on an open lot near Mount Vernon may go closer to two years between coats; a shaded deck under conifers in Sedro-Woolley will need attention more often because it simply doesn't dry out as fast.
Both can work near saltwater, but cedar asks more of you there. Salt air accelerates corrosion on any exposed metal hardware and can dry and gray unsealed cedar faster than it would inland, so if you go with cedar on a waterfront lot, plan on stainless steel fasteners and a tighter maintenance schedule. Composite avoids the fastener corrosion issue and the resealing schedule, which is why a lot of waterfront homeowners lean that direction even when they love the look of real wood.
Yes — a cedar-and-composite hybrid is one of the more common builds we do. Cedar handles rails, fascia boards and post wraps well since those see less foot traffic and standing water, while composite decking boards take the daily wear and our seasonal moisture better underfoot. Alpine Exteriors can walk through both a pure cedar build and a hybrid option side by side so you can see the real cost and maintenance difference before deciding.
If you're weighing cedar against composite, or you've got an older cedar deck that needs an honest assessment before you sink more money into stain, Alpine Exteriors is a Washington-licensed contractor (ALPINI751OW) serving Skagit, Island and Whatcom counties, including Mount Vernon, Anacortes, Burlington, Sedro-Woolley, La Conner, Stanwood, Camano Island and Bellingham. Reach out for a straightforward, on-site look at your deck and a real comparison of what cedar, composite or a hybrid build would mean for your home and your maintenance schedule.
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