How sustainable is Ipe?

The most environment friendly material to use for your deck is Ipe for several reasons: 1) Its extreme hardness allows us to use half the thickness (1x6 instead of 2x6) of any other alternative material, wood or composite. 2) Because of its extreme ability to resist the elements (expected life of 40 to 100 years) including fire (A1 fire rating) it does not need to be replaced as often as other timbers. The alternative deck materials that we offer are Redwood or composites. The Redwood requires twice the lumber, needs to be replaced every 15 years on the average, requires maintenance every year and is equivalent in price to Ipe. The composites are a mix of polyethylene (nylon) and wood sawdust. The chemical manufacturing process of it is far from environment friendly, it is a fire hazard as it burns like a torch and is 20% more expensive then Ipe.