To think decking is NOT a selling point anymore?

[neonyellowshoes]

We have crap decking. It's rotten.

I think we should just rip it out but DH seems to think that decking in general is a selling point. House is going on the market soon.

I hate decking anyway and this in my way.

It's not fashionable anymore, it's bloody inconvenient and a bugger to maintain. If this was our forever home I would have no hesitation about getting shot of it.

It's normal to be a bit panicky and defensive when people are slating your choices: dated, cheap, will devalue houses etc.

I don’t hate decking but I hate our decking - we inherited it from previous owner and it’s rotting. It’s coming out soon and a patio going in its place.

Decking is awful. Our new house had some in when we bought - we we had to buy a jet washer and jet wash the whole lot Day after moving in as you couldn't walk across it without risking a limb. Got it ripped out and paved at the earliest opportunity!

I think it is also down to where you live. Our decking was bought off EBay. The pictures showed a rain sodden patio. It was an almost black colour given the amount of rain that had fallen on it.

It has been down a couple of years and it looks completely different . it looks a much paler colour, almost new looking.

Certainly not wrotten or with dips in the middle.

Also the patio it covered was a crazy paved/concrete nightmare to keep weeded.

Raised decking was the only thing I could think of having that did away with the 2 steps down to the outside from the patio doors.

I now have a place to put my garden furniture which is on the level

Ours covers crazy paving too - on a slope with drains etc so would cost a fortune to dig it up plus there wouldn't really be an obvious alternative. We could probably get a complicated terraced layout put in but it wouldn't be justified with the value of the house.

When we bought our current house it had raised decking to offset a steeply sloping garden as many have described. It was rotting and a bit dangerous but it turned out also that the idiots who had done it had poured concrete underneath to put it on, meaning that the entire garden was draining directly into the back of our house and causing serious structural damage. We had to, at great expense, remove all the concrete, and instead create a patio and enormous retaining wall with steps. So if you see decking in a sloping garden, do check you're not buying similar fuckery that will cost you over 50k to put right.

How is describing the difference between walking on a smooth, stone surface as opposed to a load of ridges, desperate?

Oh come on now.
Little feet and tiny toes cruelly injured on terrible decking.
Getting trapped in the gaps (what gaps).
So hard on their dear little feet.

Give over.
You don't like decking, we get it.

The ridges are supposed to be on the bottom anyway

I don't like decking much at all.

We viewed a place last year where the whole of the garden tiny outside space was decked over.

It raised the whole space upwards so that neighbours, people beyond the back fence could easily see in.

Apparently there had been a small lawn & patio there before.

I didn't get it.

Needless to say, we didn't put an offer in on the property!

I am thinking of putting decking in my slipping garden. Rented a house in the past that had decking and loved it. Wasnt slippery at all. It looked like solid wood. Remember playing with my then toddler any dry days Loved the feeling of the wood on my feet. I think if mandarin it is fine. But it definitely wasn't those cheap planks from b&q. More like the stuff used in piers

My balcony has a wooden deck floor and it's a pain to maintain and keep clean.
Personally I think decking in back gardens looks wrong in England (and Ireland where I'm from). It just doesn't seem to fit in with our weather/landscape/lifestyle. I would much prefer a slabbed patio.

My manky decking dh refuses to pull up tbh he off awa in August I don’t care what arguments it creates it will be getting pulled up 😷 and i actually hate sitting outside

Have you tried to pressure wash it? The difference it makes is huge. I quite enjoy it. Or we pay DS to do it.

I think decking is horrible. I would much rather a stone patio.

Do you look out of your window into your garden and think 'rats'?
Because they are there.

No, i don't, even though I know they're there.

I suppose you accept rats in your garden as a normal thing that you can't do anything about, of course they're there.

But with decking, you feel as if you're actively inciting them to come and live there, IYSWIM, rather than them just being there as a normal thing.

Like when I see a supermarket I don't think "sweets" even though they have sweets in them. Whereas when I see a sweetshop, I think "sweets". Because they're specifically selling mainly sweets.

Not sure if that's a good analogy but it's hot and I have a hangover, so it's the best I can manage.

We had more rats a few years ago before the decking was installed.
Next door neighbours house had been left semi derelict for years.

I think having 6 cats helps.

Composite decking isn't slippy and doesn't need much maintenance. We have a 1m drop out of the back of our house and now we have a usable space to walk straight out on.

Wouldn't be a selling point for me. I have one friend with decking and it gets so slippery.

I love our decking, I've just spent most of the weekend on it. We have a steeply sloping garden, and before we put the decking in there was a drop out of the French windows to the garden of about 15 ft. Now, you walk out onto a decked area with sofas, then there are a couple of steps down to a larger decked area, then a longer set of stairs down to a paved area before another step down to the grass.
It's well maintained, no rats, and beautiful imo - I love wood.

I see decking and wonder how many rats live underneath mortified when neighbour put it in - got myself a terrier

No rats here either. Lovely to be able to walk straight out of our kitchen with all the doors open on to a lovely seating area. Rather than a drop on to some grass. We outside more often now too.

Composite is not slippy and requires next to
no maintenance.

I love my decking! It's the nicest part of my rather dull garden (am working on the rest of it, but it's rubbly under the grass/topsoil and difficult to improve).

We moved here (new house) from the sort of house many MNers would 'approve' of much more - thatched, character, stone flags etc - and I just love NOT having dark cobwebby corners, low beams, spiders, and rats IN the house on one occasion, let alone possibly being under the decking

My decking feels quite Mediterranean to me with its pots of flowers and herbs and table and chairs and parasol in nice weather for BBQs and morning coffee. I wouldn't get rid of it for the world but this thread has reminded me it's time to paint the "balustrades" and re-apply preserver to the floor.

Wooden decking is prone to warping/swelling/shrinking/cracking/rotting/collapsing due to the vagaries of our weather if not treated appropriately and looked after.

Also - Things.Live.Beneath.It..........

I like decking. Not rotten though.