dm, You Might Want to Check out (Recycled) Pastic Wood...
...my wife and I added a covered front porch to our house, here in SW PA (near Pittsburgh) in the fall of 2005. The builder we used has an agreement with a local company that manufactures plastic lumber (and other plastic items) from recycled plastic - mainly the 1 gallon plastic milk jugs. This builder uses the recycled lumber and vinyl railings and posts as their "top of the line" deck material. Our builder said he could also use any composite we wanted or "exotic wood" (like IPE) for the same price.
We both love this front porch. All I've had to do is pressure wash the decking a couple of times a year, and wipe down the railings and posts to knock off the accumulated dust/dirt that blows onto the porch. So far, no issues with the plastic decking material or vinyl railings and posts.
There is no decking material that does not have some "issues". The exotic woods are rather expensive; and still need to have some sort of protective coating - although there is at least one deck builder from Oklanoma City who posts on a number of deck forums that says untreated IPE will naturally weather to a "nice silver-grey". Some people have very good luck with composites; others not. Trex has been sued at least once over mold and discoloration issues. Several composite deck board manufacturers have gone out of business after similar issues occurred. Apparently, if the wood material is not completely coated with the plastic, then the wood can start to rot or mold start to grow. Plastic wood has its own issues (mostly looks - "it looks too plasticy"). We went with the grey decking material, which I think looks just like the painted front porch floor of my childhood home.
You can do a Google search and readily find the issues and good points with each type of decking material - IPE (or exotic woods), composites, or plastic. I have also posted at the Porches & Decks forum at Gardenweb, where they have a lot of info on IPE and composite decking material:
Porches and Decks - GardenWeb. Do a search there and you will get an idea of what some say about various deck materials.
One last note, on pavers. We had to replace our front walkway when we added the porch, as they had to tear out the existing concrete walkway to install the porch. We had a different contractor install a concrete paver walkway. He specializes in paver installations and used the specialized sand for pavers. We have also had this paver walkway since the fall of 2005 and have had no heaving or displacement of the pavers at all - and we have had some pretty cold winters and wet springs/falls. I agree that concrete pavers would be a nice alternative as well. By the way, you don't have to coat pavers - unless you like the "wet" look. In fact, my contractor strongly recommended we do not coat the pavers, as you then have to periodically recoat them to look good - he said the coating will wear off where people walk. We haven't had to do anything to the pavers to have them look like the day they were installed.
Good luck with your deck/flooring replacement.