New Jersey homeowners have to make a pretty big deck material choice, and this pick will stick with them for decades. These two decisions can ripple through your household budget and those weekend plans you were hoping to keep free.
Cedar is the pricier option at $20 to $40 per square foot when installed, while pressure-treated lumber usually runs between $15 and $25 per square foot.
That price difference on an average 300-square-foot deck can add anywhere from $1,500 to $4,500 more for cedar. Initial cost is only part of the story, though. Cedar decks need to be stained every one to three years, and pressure-treated lumber needs to be sealed about every other year. New Jersey’s climate isn’t kind to either of these materials – we get around 70% humidity during the summer months, plus more than 30 freeze-thaw cycles each year. Cedar has natural oils that help it resist moisture, and pressure-treated wood uses chemical preservatives to fight off our state’s carpenter bees and termites.
Each one of these materials acts differently under Garden State conditions, and that helps you choose which one makes the most sense for your goals.
Let’s compare these popular decking materials so you can choose the right one!
How New Jersey Weather Affects Your Deck
New Jersey weather can be pretty brutal on outdoor decking. During the summer months, humidity levels hover around seventy percent on most days, and your deck boards usually stay damp for much longer periods than you might think. Winter brings a different set of problems – the freeze-thaw cycles that can happen thirty times or more during the season. Water seeps into the wood during the warmer daylight hours and then freezes hard once the sun goes down. All that expanding and shrinking puts tremendous stress on deck boards, and weaker wood just can’t take the never-ending movement without eventually splitting apart.
Coastal properties face another headache that inland homeowners don’t have to worry about. Salt spray can drift as far as three thousand feet from the ocean, and this salt speeds up wood deterioration much faster than plain moisture alone. Hurricane Sandy was a perfect example of just how destructive coastal weather can be for outdoor structures. Plenty of homeowners along the coast had to completely rebuild their decks after that storm rolled through.
Cedar comes with natural oils that are already embedded in the wood grain, and these oils act like a built-in defense system against moisture damage and common pests. These oils give cedar its distinctive smell and also help repel carpenter bees and termites – two insects that definitely love to tunnel through deck boards in New Jersey. Pressure-treated lumber works in another way, though – chemical preservatives are pushed deep into the wood fibers to keep rot and insect damage from happening.
Temperature swings add some more stress that your deck has to put up with year after year. January readings can drop well below freezing, and July heat can exceed ninety degrees on the deck surface. Anyone who lived through the winter of 2014-2015 knows how punishing those cold snaps can be on outdoor structures. The different rates of expansion and contraction change how it holds up with age.
The Cost Gap Between Cedar and Pressure-Treated
Most homeowners start to feel it in their wallets when they see the cost of these materials. Pressure-treated lumber will usually run you somewhere between two and four dollars per square foot in New Jersey. Cedar lumber is going to cost you quite a bit more than that – we’re talking about four to eight dollars per square foot for the same coverage.
A standard deck that’s around three hundred square feet (which is pretty common for most New Jersey homes) makes these numbers start to add up fast. Your pressure-treated lumber materials alone might come in at around nine hundred dollars for the whole project. Cedar materials for that same deck can easily hit twenty-four hundred dollars or more and can seriously change your budget plans. Where you live in New Jersey plays into what you actually pay too. Homeowners who live closer to big lumber yards near Philadelphia or New York City usually get better deals on the delivery costs. Properties way out in Salem County or other rural areas will probably pay more just to have those materials delivered to the site. Seasonal demand also drives prices up and down, while supplier availability can make costs jump around from week to week.
You also have other costs beyond just the wood. Plenty of coastal towns near the Jersey Shore have building codes that make you use stainless steel fasteners instead of standard hardware. Regular screws and nails will get destroyed by the salt air out there in no time, so you have to use those heavy-duty marine-grade fasteners. These upgraded screws and nails cost about the same, no matter which type of wood you pick. They’ll add a few hundred dollars to your total material costs either way.
Most homeowners get a bit of sticker shock after they get their first quotes for cedar decking materials. That price jump from pressure-treated lumber to cedar feels pretty dramatic once you see the numbers side by side! Families in Bergen County or Morris County usually decide that cedar’s natural beauty and its ability to last make the premium worth it. Other homeowners would rather put that extra money toward other home improvement projects and stick with the more budget-friendly pressure-treated option.
How Long Your Deck Will Last
Cedar and pressure-treated wood for your New Jersey deck differ mostly in how long each one lasts. Cedar usually lasts for about 15 to 20 years, and pressure-treated lumber tends to give you roughly 10 to 15 years of reliable service. Of course, these timeframes can change quite a bit depending on just where your home is in the state.
Homes near the Jersey Shore deal with salty ocean air that’s going to be much harder on either of these materials. Homes with lots of trees around them run into completely different problems since shade leaves the wood wet and damp for much longer after it rains. Direct sunlight creates its own problems too – it dries out the wood too much and causes it to crack and split over the years. Some pretty alarming data came out recently from the International Association of Certified Home Inspectors: 90% of deck collapses happen on decks that are older than 10 years. Nobody wants to hear statistics like that. It sure drives home why regular maintenance matters, no matter which material you choose.
New Jersey has its own way of making deck ownership harder than it needs to be. Massive oak trees drop tons of pollen each spring, and it ends up collecting in every corner, crack, and groove of your deck. All that thick yellow dust traps moisture against the wood and can speed up the rot pretty fast without staying on top of cleaning it off routinely.
You can actually see the difference between these two materials just by driving through some of the older neighborhoods around the state. Down at the Shore, plenty of cedar decks from the 1990s still look pretty decent and work just fine today.
Head inland to towns away from the coast, and you’ll start seeing pressure-treated decks from the early 2000s that are already showing their age and need to be replaced.
Care Tasks That Each Material Needs
Having a deck in New Jersey means you’ll be doing some maintenance, whether you like it or not. Cedar decking could use a thorough wash each spring, and you should add a fresh coat of stain every two to three years – this helps it hold onto that rich, warm color that makes cedar so popular. Pressure-treated lumber also needs the same annual washing. One extra task involves checking and tightening those screws and nails from time to time because pressure-treated wood has a habit of moving as the weather changes from season to season.
Homeowners around New Jersey usually wind up dragging out their power washers sometime in May. All that spring pollen has usually turned every deck into a thick yellow mess by that point, and it doesn’t matter what type of wood you have because pollen is an equal-opportunity nuisance.
All this maintenance will shock you with its cost if you haven’t looked into it recently. Anyone living in areas like Princeton or Morristown probably has a neighbor or two who pays a company for deck maintenance. These crews charge you somewhere between three and five hundred dollars each year just to make sure your deck looks decent.
Skipping maintenance for a few years will definitely show. Your wood choice will determine the results. Pressure-treated decks develop a weird gray-green color that homeowners find pretty unappealing. Cedar actually deals with neglect much better and develops a silver-gray patina that looks quite natural. Some homeowners eventually prefer the weathered cedar look over a freshly stained deck.
Anyone planning to take on their own deck staining should wait until September or October rolls around – it’s when the humidity finally starts dropping off, and your stain will have a chance to dry and cure the way it’s supposed to. Summer seems like the obvious choice for outdoor projects. All that New Jersey humidity makes it much harder for your stain to dry all the way, though.
Building Rules for the New Jersey Coast
After you’ve figured out the maintenance side of the equation, you need to know what New Jersey will actually let you build on your property. New Jersey uses International Code Council standards as their blueprint for deck construction, and cedar and pressure-treated lumber work just fine under those laws as long as your installation meets the law.
Living near the coast means extra fastener laws to worry about. Any property that sits within 3,000 feet of the saltwater has to use either stainless steel or hot-dipped galvanized hardware – this applies to everyone from Cape May through Sandy Hook. Your choice between cedar and pressure-treated lumber won’t change this requirement because the fastener laws apply to each material in the same way.
Some of the shore towns pile on extra laws on top of what the state already mandates. Ocean City and Long Beach Island each have their own wind-load limits that sit on top of the standard state laws. Local laws don’t favor cedar or pressure-treated lumber specifically, but they’re still going to bump up your installation costs, no matter which material you choose.
New Jersey updated their building code back in 2018, and those changes still matter for deck builders today. Elevated decks now call for railings that measure at least 42 inches in height, and the code gets pretty specific about joist spacing as well. These laws apply in the same way whether you pick cedar or pressure-treated lumber for your deck boards.
Places like Cape May and Lambertville have style laws that usually favor cedar’s natural appearance over the more uniform look of pressure-treated lumber. Your material choice could be made for you in these areas because the local preservation committee usually has to approve or reject the material that you pick for anything that’s visible from the street.
Pick What Works Best for Your Life
Choosing between cedar and pressure-treated lumber is all about what sort of deck owner you are. Some homeowners actually like spending a Saturday afternoon each spring with a brush full of wood stain, and others would much prefer to do just about anything else with their hard-earned weekend time. Either way works just fine, and neither one is right or wrong.
Your family situation matters quite a bit in making this call, too. A young couple with kids in Montclair might go with pressure-treated lumber because it can take a beating from toy trucks and sticky juice boxes without needing much attention from mom and dad. Retirees in Toms River might choose cedar because they actually have the time to take care of it properly, and they enjoy the way it looks when it’s well cared for.
Where you live can also shape what makes sense. In upscale neighborhoods where homes command top dollar, cedar can add extra value to your property. Buyers in these markets usually see cedar as a premium feature that justifies paying the extra money. That said, in starter home areas, pressure-treated wood does the job just as well and keeps your investment affordable.
Homeowners who already own the right tools and like outdoor projects will find cedar maintenance just turns into another part of their seasonal to-do list. Anyone paying a contractor each year will see the maintenance costs add up pretty fast over time. Some homeowners weigh the two wood options and choose to go with composite materials instead – which is a completely different conversation. It’s worth mentioning, though, just in case neither wood type sounds right to you.
Cedar and pressure-treated decks have each worked well for New Jersey homeowners for plenty of decades. Just match whichever option actually fits your day-to-day lifestyle instead of what might sound nice in theory.
Contact Our Team Today to Start Your Project
Materials don’t need to stress you out. Either option has been working great for homeowners all across the state for decades. You have all the information now about weather resistance, costs, maintenance schedules, and local building codes, so you’re already ahead of the game. Whether you pick cedar’s natural warmth or pressure-treated lumber’s reliable strength, you’ll get an outdoor space that completely changes how you spend time at home.
Weekend walks around neighborhoods usually reveal which decks seem to be holding up best against whatever local weather throws at them. You can see how some homeowners have let their cedar decks weather to that beautiful silver-gray color, and others make sure their pressure-treated decks stay looking fresh with regular staining. Neighbors who’ve had their decks for five or ten years regularly share the honest story about what maintenance actually looks like compared to what the sales materials promise. Every area of the state has its own weather challenges, and the homeowners there have already figured out what actually works. Thousands of families across the state have successfully built and enjoyed either type of deck, proving there’s no single right answer – just the one that fits your specific situation. Your perfect deck is out there waiting to become the backdrop for summer barbecues, morning coffee sessions, and loads of memories with family and friends you care about most.
We at Magnolia Home Remodeling Group have been helping New Jersey families create their perfect outdoor spaces for more than three decades – we know what works in every corner of the state. Whether you’re leaning toward cedar’s natural look or pressure-treated lumber’s steady performance, we’ll help you through every step of the process – from the first design ideas to the final board.
You can check out our gallery to see the decks we’ve built, grab our free planning guide, or give us a call to schedule your consultation, where we can talk about your plans and budget. Let’s work together to build a deck that fits your life just right and stands against everything that the Garden State weather can throw at it!
