A couple of years ago, Mrs. BD and I vowed to never replace a rotten piece of wood on the outside of our home - or of the Farm, for that matter - with real wood. Purists like Sipp might object, but we've had enough. Too expensive in the long run.
My father-in-law taught me this lesson, and recently re-did most of his home's exterior these ways. He is no longer thrilled with the DIY approach as he grows a little older.
Blame design, or Nature, or Entropy, or whatever. Dead wood and water do not mix. Not in Yankeeland, anyway.
In the past week, we had Anderson's custom replacement service replace 8 old custom-sized windows with their new fake, never-paint, never-chip, last-forever composite frames and good thermopane glass. Not anywhere as expensive as one might have thought, but still costly enough with all of the custom sizing. Including three casement windows. Their guys work fast, too. Did it all in one day, and put insulation in the edges of the new frames.
Any wood that rots - sills, etc. - all we will use is Azeks. If it rotted out once, it will do so again. We're gradually replacing all the dang wood columns for the pergola and the porches with custom fiberglass columns with 6X6" pressure-treated wood posts hidden inside.
These new "woods" never rot, never peel, never warp, and never need painting. Woodpeckers never peck holes in them, and wood-boring wasps leave it alone. Best thing of all: it looks like real wood.
You might say that we have been converted by maintenance cost.
