Had a client last year whose deck turned into a skating rink after their sump pump failed—made me rethink composite for flood-prone spots.
Funny thing, I’ve actually seen the opposite in a few cases. One job, the homeowner went with pressure-treated wood thinking it’d be less slick, but after a couple seasons of shade and standing water, it was just as bad—maybe worse, since the grain held onto algae like crazy. The anti-slip strips helped for a bit, but yeah, they started peeling at the edges after our first freeze/thaw cycle.
If you’re dealing with regular flooding, I’d almost lean toward a rough-sawn cedar or something with more texture built in. Composite can be trouble if water pools, but wood isn’t always a magic fix either. Sometimes it’s more about how you lay the boards and making sure there’s enough airflow underneath to dry things out. Just my two cents—sometimes the “slippery when wet” problem is more about drainage than material choice.
Yeah, I’ve noticed the same—drainage really makes or breaks it. Even with the “right” material, if water can’t escape or the air can’t move underneath, you’ll end up with slime and slipperiness. Sometimes a slight slope on the boards helps more than any anti-slip product.
I get what you’re saying about drainage and slope—definitely makes sense in theory. But I’ve actually seen a few decks where they sloped the boards just a tad, and it ended up being more of a headache than a help. One job I was on last fall, we laid the deck with a slight pitch thinking it’d help water run off, but it actually made the boards feel uneven underfoot. Walking across it, you’d notice this weird tilt, especially with longer spans. Maybe that’s just me being picky, but it bugged the heck out of the homeowner.
What surprised me is that on another site—same materials, but we focused more on spacing between the boards for airflow and drainage instead of angling them. That one stayed way drier underneath and didn’t get slippery at all, even after a couple of nasty storms. The boards were just laid flat but gapped enough for water to drop through instead of pooling. I guess my point is, sometimes overthinking the slope can backfire if you’re not careful with how much you angle it.
I’m not saying don’t bother with any pitch at all—just that board spacing and making sure there’s airflow underneath might be easier to get right than trying to build in a slope. Especially if you’re working with exposed trusses where you want things to look clean from below too. Anyone else run into issues with sloped decks feeling off? Or maybe it’s just the way we did it...