TimberTech

TimberTech decking is a low-upkeep deck board that comes in Advanced PVC or Composite, with railing to match. It’s for homeowners, and the contractors they hire, who are building a new deck or re-decking an old one. A wood deck needs regular sanding, staining or sealing, but TimberTech needs only an occasional cleaning. The boards resist moisture, mold and insect damage, and they won’t splinter, crack or rot.

TimberTech is a company from Wilmington, Ohio, and it says homeowners, contractors and architects have trusted the name for over 25 years. In 2012 it was bought by CPG Building Products, which also owned Azek of Skokie, Illinois. The corporate headquarters moved to Chicago in late 2018, and The AZEK Company, which James Hardie bought in 2025, is TimberTech’s parent company. The brand is known for low-maintenance decking and railing made from recycled and reclaimed materials.

Advanced PVC or Composite

TimberTech makes two kinds of board, and both are built to outperform wood. Advanced PVC is made entirely from engineered polymers with no wood or organic filler, so it resists moisture all the way through the board. Composite blends virgin and recycled polymers with organic material like wood flour, under a protective cap.

For a pool deck, a dock, a damp shady lot or a fire zone, go with Advanced PVC. TimberTech names high-humidity climates, coastal areas and fire zones as the places it’s suited to. On a lot that backs onto timber, that makes Advanced PVC the line to start with. The fire listings in the table below vary from board to board, so get the listing for the exact collection onto a fire-zone order.

How it looks next to real wood

The doubt that stops most buyers is that it’s plastic and will look fake beside the wood trim on the house. TimberTech answers that with proprietary color-blending and embossing. The boards come out in several tones, with varied grain patterns and wire-brushed finishes made to look like real hardwood. The Harvest Collection has a soft, traditional stained-wood look. The Reserve Collection has a reclaimed-wood look. Other colors copy premium hardwoods such as ipe, mahogany and teak. The remaining collections, listed in the table, differ in color, finish and price tier.

Narrow, standard and wide boards can be mixed on one deck for a custom pattern. The widths you can get depend on the color, so choose the color first. Dark boards get hot in full sun, and Cool Touch Technology comes only in select colors, so choose from those colors for a south-facing deck. Lay samples where the deck will go, and look at them at midday and again in the evening before settling on a color.

Upkeep, cost and warranty

Upkeep is soap, water and a rinse a few times a year. TimberTech costs more than wood up front, and most of that difference is in the boards themselves rather than the labor. It fits the buyer who’s weighing years of sanding and staining against the price on day one.

Advanced PVC collections carry a Limited Lifetime Product Warranty, Composite collections carry their own Product Limited Warranty, and fade and stain coverage runs 25 to 50 years depending on the collection. Those warranties are for residential buyers, and commercial terms and periods vary, so settle the terms before placing a commercial order.

Installing TimberTech decking

Most trouble with a TimberTech deck starts in the frame. Build the framing to TimberTech’s install guide for the board you choose, because frames built for wood boards often have joists spaced too far apart for these. On a re-deck, pull the old boards, probe every joist for rot and measure the spacing before any new board goes down. Then run TimberTech joist tape over the joist tops so water doesn’t sit on the wood. When an old frame is too far gone, TimberTech also makes aluminum framing.

The boards go down with TimberTech’s hidden fastening systems, and they move with temperature. Gap every board and every butt joint exactly as the guide says. Wrong gaps are the most common mistake, and they lead to moisture problems that can void the warranty. A handy homeowner can do the job. When a registered TimberTech contractor installs the deck following the instruction guides, TimberTech adds its Limited Replacement Labor Warranty.

Railing, porch and lighting

Impression Rail Express comes in White with a Drink Rail and Horizontal Cable In-fill, which keeps a view open. Pinnacle Railing takes Square Web Decorative Panel Infill for a patterned look. Classic Composite Series Railing comes in Espresso with a Drink Rail. Fulton Rail, aluminum railing with a matching privacy screen, and PVC and composite rail fill out the lineup. Lay out the post locations before the decking goes on, and bolt every post to solid blocking in the frame. A post fastened only through the deck boards will wobble.

For the front of the house, the Porch Collection uses Advanced PVC boards to give a porch a traditional hardwood-floor look. TimberTech Lighting is made for the same decks and railings.

TimberTech decking specs

Spec	TimberTech
Decking lines	Advanced PVC, Composite
Advanced PVC collections	Harvest, Harvest+, Landmark, Solstice, Vintage
Composite collections	Legacy, Reserve, Terrain+, Terrain, Prime+, Prime, Premier, Classic
Board widths	Narrow 3.5”, standard 5.5”, wide 7.25”, depending on color
Colors	Over 35 across the collections
Recycled content	Up to 85%
Cap	Three- or four-sided, by collection
Fire listings	Class A Flame Spread Rating, Ignition Resistant designation, WUI Compliance; Class C Flame Spread Rating also listed
Cool Touch Technology	Select colors
Hidden fastening systems	TOPLoc, FUSIONLoc, SIDELoc, CONCEALoc, Cortex

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you install TimberTech decking?

Advanced PVC and Composite boards go down the same basic way, so the steps for a composite deck and an older Azek-branded one are the same. Cut them with a fine-tooth carbide blade, and land every butt joint over doubled joists or solid blocking so both board ends have full support. The boards are blended in several tones, so pull from a few bundles as you go and lay them out dry before fastening to spread the color evenly across the deck.

How much does TimberTech decking cost?

The price depends mostly on the collection, because TimberTech collections are priced in different tiers, and then on how much railing and framing work the job needs. Price the whole deck together, meaning boards, hidden fasteners, joist tape and railing, and hold that total up against a wood deck plus the years of sanding and staining it would need.

What colors does TimberTech decking come in?

The composite colors include Dark Cocoa, and TimberTech Cladding comes in Coastline, Dark Hickory and English Walnut, so siding and deck can be planned to go together. You can order up to four free samples. Hold them against the siding and trim in daylight before picking a color.

What is the TimberTech Harvest Collection?

Harvest is one of the Advanced PVC collections, so the board is all polymer with no wood filler and holds up next to pools, on docks and in damp, shady yards. It has a soft, traditional stained-wood look that sits well beside painted or stained wood trim. Pick your Harvest color before you plan a mixed-width pattern, because the widths available depend on the color.

How do you install TimberTech railing?

Set and bolt the posts first, then measure each opening between posts on its own and cut each rail to that opening, because posts rarely land at exactly even spacing. Check every post for plumb in both directions before any rail goes on, since one leaning post throws every rail and baluster after it out of line.