Trex Deck Board Types for Maryland & Virginia Homes

Trex manufactures three primary composite decking board lines: Transcend, Enhance, and Select. Each offers distinct durability, aesthetics, and performance features suited to different budgets and preferences. Whether you're planning a deck renovation in Montgomery County, MD or Fairfax County, VA, understanding these options helps you choose the right composite boards for your outdoor living project.

Similarities and Differences within Trex Decking

The Three Lines of Trex Composite Decking

Trex offers three tiers of composite decking—Transcend, Enhance, and Select. These are considered “good,” “better,” and “best,” with Transcend being best, Enhance being better, and Select being good.

How Are Trex Decking Boards Made?

Regardless of what line you select, all Trex composite decking boards are shelled products. This means every board is capped on three sides with a protective shell. This offers extra protection against many levels of wear and tear, including fading, scratching, and staining. So, whether your budget calls for the Transcend, Enhance, or Select, you know you’ll be receiving boards that hold up and perform to the same standards.

Image provided by Trex Company

Within the world of composite decking, though, there is still some lingering confusion about the quality level of what you’ll receive. This stems from manufacturing processes way back in the early days of composite decks. With those first generations of composite decking, there was no extra shell to offer added levels of protection and increase aesthetic appeal, and people still equate that quality level with boards produced today. Composite decking, however, has taken huge strides since those initial products, and people certainly shouldn’t judge today’s output by those outdated methods.

Which Trex Boards Include Warranties?

All of them! A Trex decking board is a Trex decking board, whether it’s Transcend, Enhance, or Select. This means you’ll receive that twenty-five-year residential limited warranty as well as the twenty-five-year residential limited fade and stain warranty.

Transcend Composite Decking Boards

The most premium Trex offering, Transcend offers a wide array of color and grain patterns. This truly helps these boards mimic the look of natural hardwood—without all the maintenance and deforestation required of actual hardwood.

For Transcend decking, there are five premium tropical colors as well as five classic earth tones. There are also two porch colors.

Enhance Composite Decking Boards

Just as Transcend offers grain patterns and texture to mimic hardwood, so too do Enhance boards. The main difference is the color selection options. Enhance has three standard decking colors (Beach Dune, Clam Shell, and Saddle).

Select Composite Decking Boards

The Select line offers five color options. The difference between Select and the other two lines lies in the grain pattern and deck board size. The grain pattern is more subtle in Select boards, and the thickness is 7/8” (as opposed to the 1” thickness of Transcend and Enhance).

Mix and Match Product Lines

If you’re thinking about mixing and matching product lines within the same decking project for budgetary or other reasons, there is one word of caution. The Select line is slightly smaller (7/8” rather than 1”). Because these sizes won’t match exactly, Trex does not advise using a combination of Select and other product lines together.

When in the deck planning phase, this is definitely something to keep in mind before you go too far down a particular design road. Give us a call or shoot us a message if you'd like to discuss low-maintenance Trex deck boards with Design Builders!