Pressure treated vs cedar for a pergola, wish I compared sooner

My cedar pergola outside of Asheville is rotting at the posts after just 3 seasons, meanwhile my neighbor's pressure treated one looks fine with zero maintenance... Has anyone else had cedar fail this fast in a damp climate?

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cora56212h ago

Same thing happened to me down near Greenville. We built ours in 2021 and the base of two posts just turned to mush by last fall. The wood was wet all the time from the morning dew and rain. I even used the cedar rated for ground contact and it still failed. My buddy's pressure treated one has been up six years and it's solid, you can barely see any wear on it. I ended up having to jack up the whole frame and replace the posts with treated ones, which was a pain. Wish I'd just gone with treated from the start.