I used black locust for a large porch and am very pleased with it.
I ended up doing a kind of 180 and installing Accoya wood, which, geographically and species-wise is about the furthest thing from BL available, but felt to me like a good investment in longevity and thus embodied carbon, even when accounting for the long boat trip(s) to my place.
Just installed it so can’t speak to longevity but encouraged by the 50 year warranty against structural issues caused by fungal decay or rot, or against swell or shrinkage > 2.5%.
I'm out of the loop on current lumber prices.
Also, it doesn't grow large, often because it's so susceptible to disease. So there's that, too.
Wikipedia says "It is very resistant to rot" and "In the Netherlands some other parts of Europe, black locust is one of the most rot-resistant local trees".
That has to be part of the issue, right?
Most agricultural crops have a very short seasonal window in which they can be harvested, but corn is not expensive because we only get one harvest per year, lumber is an anomaly in that respect.
The longer, clearer, and straighter you need tbe wood the worse black locusts becomes.
The amusing thing about Osage is we lived in a subdivision that contained the old boundary of a farm, so all of our neighbors had a row of “problem” Osage orange on their back property line. 18” or bigger, tall and looming. And now I know people who actually want it.
You’ve also pointed out the problem with plastic. It fades and if you were to add new plastic it would look off.
I will never use real wood for a flat outdoor surface again.
They’re sort of fine but they’ll need replacing just the same, tend to get very hot, hard to change, and are not very flattering.
That is a pretty broad statement so perhaps you're thinking of a different thing than me when you say "treated wood", but the typical pressure treated pine you get at big box home improvement stores will absolutely rot. They reformulated the treating agent in 2004 so it's no longer using arsenic, and since then pressure treated wood just doesn't last as long. Generally in my area, fences and decks built with standard pressure treated pine look good for about 6 months, then look bad for 5 years, then start to fall apart.
I don't know what this plastic wood is tbh, but I'm having a hard time imagining any plastic surface looking good after 5 years of rain, sun, and boots. Maybe if you sand it down annually. I'm not a fan of grinding microplastics into my yard.
It's basically combining wood fibres with a plastic resin (instead of lignin as in natural wood), then manufactured with some kind of molding or extrusion process.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood%E2%80%93plastic_composite
They’re fine for certain people I guess but I don’t like how they look. And if you ever have to replace a part it will look weird as the deck will be faded except the new part.
I've noticed that as well on plastic decks I've been on. They feel bad on feet and seemingly get hotter than wood (but that could be an illusion).
This clonal tree is a menace, and should definitely be harvested for use. The amount of scars I have from their INSANE thorns when young is getting too much to count.