Building a new Deck

[almadianna]

I am doing research on building a new deck in our backyard.

I have found some good tips on using solar panels for lights and such but for the building material I am kind of at a loss. I dont know where to find the most eco friendly building materials out there...

We are also going to have to get deck furnitire and would prefer to be green in that aspect as well.
Any suggestions?
Links? THank you fellow :!!

[snanna]

We're going with oil-finished ceder for our small deck as it is local, renewable, responsibly harvested, and won't sit in a landfill like the "recycled" fiber decking-- a real greenwash product, from what I've seen. The ceder will need to be replaced in our lifetime, but I can live with that. So maybe there's a local, responsibly-forested wood you can use?

The most responsible material would be salvaged, but with small children and (shall we say) advanced-beginner skills, we're just buying new for this project.

[almadianna]

same here, i think that we could find some salvaged but we are talking about total newbs doing this (My husband and I) with a toddler (18 months) and an 8 month pregnant wife so we are not looking to kill ourselves if possible... but we do want to be eco friendly while doing this. thank you for the info!

[ericaz]

Dh and a neighbor built ours out of cedar last summer and it's gorgeous

[loriedna]

We were not able to find cedar anymore in our area (Boston) so we used mahogany for our deck. We just had it built last month. It looks amazing, I have to tell you. It was worth the extra price. I wished we could find a local wood fit for the job, but there is nothing of the sort.