I'll be real honest right up front and disclaim that I DO NOT KNOW if I am speaking from a professional standpoint or a personal one with the following opinion: I would never put anything on Ipe! With that said, mildew resistant only means that they've put something in it to make it LESS APPEALING, not "proof". I swear I think anything can mildew. Second, while the rug is mildew resistant, the wet ipe that will be present after rain, dew, snow, will be less resistant and you are going to get discoloration from hell! If you were to put it out only when the area was in use and then put it away (PITA) it might be a nice accessory. I can just tell you that we have had many many issues when trying to restore ipe that has had just doormats placed, even out of direct sunlight. It is nearly impossible to ever even out the wood again (short of sanding all of it way down). Celeste

sounds like you already made up your mind, but here is my 2 cents: i just had my mahogany deck re-stained & sealed last year, the pro painter told me NOT to use a rug, he said they traps moisture & will eventually rot the wood. they do look really nice, but as someone else said above, they fade fast, you really only get 1 or 2 seasons out of one.

We pulled out our existing deck, it was just made with some kind of wood-we're not even sure what it was, but it was grooved on the underside. The PO had installed it and it was a very bad job that he'd done. Twice I fell on it-one resulted in me fracturing vertebrea in my back, the other I fell thru a board that snapped and just got bruised up. DH also fell thru snapped boards and we decided that was it-it's got to go! We researched all kinds of materials, I wanted no maintenance, but found that the composite decking wasn't a good idea for our wet weather-too slippery. Thought about cedar but it was high maintenance, so we just went with pressure treated. We've completely redesigned the deck, too, to make it more usable for how WE use it. We haven't finished it yet but what we've done we're very happy with. We'll stain it when it's done, and I want to add some railing in a few spots-its' not very high off the ground, but the ground is not level, so some areas are higher. I want to do a cable railing.

We have had a large Azek deck for about six years on coastal Massachusetts and love it. I wouldn’t say it’s cool in summer but it’s definitely not as hot as trex. Our main reason for choosing it over trex was the absence of wood fibers and we have had no trouble with mildew or staining. We don’t have a rug, so can’t speak to that aspect. My husband turned our contractor onto the Camo deck fastener system and even bought them the tool. They loved it and said they would never use anything else. One key advantage is that if you ever need to remove a board, you can simply remove that board, not all of them up to the one you need to change. This is unusual. Our deck is around 40 feet long and in places spans more than 20 feet deep, almost all up about 9 feet. We’ve had no issues with movement at all, but it is very well supported. Hope this helps.