Composite is sold on a promise of “no maintenance”. The promise is largely true — and it has a cost the brochure doesn't mention.
Composite wins if the terrace is shaded, walked on in shoes, and you want to not touch it for ten years. Thermowood wins if people go barefoot on it, it sits in sun, and you want to be able to sand it back to new in year five. The decisive difference isn't rot — it is that a scratch in composite can't be repaired.
A polymer matrix isn't food for fungus. That isn't marketing, it is true.
Wash it. No oil, no sanding, no schedule.
Serious brands offer between 3 and 25 years depending on the range.
An industrial product: the same shade can be bought again a year later.
Polymer conducts heat better than timber. In an Almaty summer you can't cross dark composite barefoot — and barefoot is usually the point of a terrace.
This is the decisive one. A gouge in composite isn't repairable: the board gets replaced. On thermowood it sands out and takes oil.
Composite expands and contracts noticeably, hence the strict gapping rules and the risk of buckling if it was laid tight.
UV stabilisers slow it, they don't stop it. The difference is that faded composite stays faded.
| WPC composite | Thermowood | |
|---|---|---|
| Rot | doesn't rot | biologically inert after the chamber |
| Surface temperature in sun | up to 50–60 °C | markedly lower — it is timber |
| Repairing a scratch | replace the board | sand and oil |
| Maintenance | washing | oil once a year, if you want the color |
| Thermal movement | significant, needs gapping | minimal |
| Fading | yes, permanent | yes, reversible by sanding |
| Underfoot | plastic | wood |
Ask what the terrace is for. If people will be barefoot on it and lying on it, warmth underfoot and the ability to renew the surface decide it, and that's thermowood. If it is a technical deck walked on in shoes, composite is the rational choice and we'll say so.
A commercial site, heavy footfall, nobody to maintain it, and appearance in year eight is secondary. Composite is the more honest answer to that brief than we're.
Thermowood or larch
Karagach or ash
Thermo-pine or karagach
Composite wins if the terrace is shaded, walked on in shoes, and you want to not touch it for ten years. Thermowood wins if people go barefoot on it, it sits in sun, and you want to be able to sand it back to new in year five. The decisive difference isn't rot — it is that a scratch in composite can't be repaired.
Ask what the terrace is for. If people will be barefoot on it and lying on it, warmth underfoot and the ability to renew the surface decide it, and that's thermowood. If it is a technical deck walked on in shoes, composite is the rational choice and we'll say so.
A commercial site, heavy footfall, nobody to maintain it, and appearance in year eight is secondary. Composite is the more honest answer to that brief than we're.
