The most common question I get at site visits is "should I go timber or composite?" The honest answer — I don't know yet, because the question isn't really about the material. It's about you.
Here's the frame that actually works.
How do you feel about lawn? If you mow your own grass and enjoy the ritual of looking after your yard — you're probably a timber person. If you pay someone to mow it, you're somewhere in the middle. If you've ripped your lawn out for artificial turf because you'd had enough of the maintenance — you're a composite person.
It's not better vs worse. It's a match or mismatch with how you actually live.
Timber
Natural, warm, beautiful, alive — and it asks something of you in return. Annual oil, occasional sanding, the colour ages and shifts. Some people love that relationship. Others don't.
If you envision your deck warm, slightly weathered, and character-rich at year five — and you're honest about doing the maintenance — timber is your answer.
Composite
Engineered, consistent, near-zero maintenance — just sweep it and wash it once or twice a year. It also gets hot in Perth summers, has thermal expansion to factor into the design, and produces offcuts that go straight in the bin. It's more expensive up front.
If you envision your deck looking clean and consistent in year five — and you know you're not a maintenance person — composite is your answer.
The cost picture
Timber is cheaper to build. Composite is cheaper to own. The lines cross somewhere between year 8 and year 12. Beyond that, composite has paid for itself. Below that, timber is cheaper even with maintenance factored in.
Three questions to ask yourself
Before you ask anyone which material is better, ask yourself these:
What do you envision your space looking like in year five — warm and lived-in, or clean and consistent?
How often do you actually maintain things in your life? Not what you tell yourself, what you actually do.
What kind of owner are you going to be? The deck has to match the real person who'll live with it, not the aspirational version.
Get those right and the material mostly chooses itself.