decking....any advice

[katierocket]

this is a bit irrelevant to parenting but I thought mumsnet's wealth of shared knowledge may be able to help...we are going to put down decking in couple of weeks in our yard. Any advice from those who have done this? dos and dont's? type of wood? etc

we have a large area of decking outside our back door. We choose it, rather than slabs as less damaging to heads if children fell. Its proper hardwood,grooved stuff, gen stood up fairly well but big drawback is that in winter it gets algae and is really slippy when wet. We pressure hose and use decking cleaner but a week later prob recurrs. Dont know if any one else finds this?

Our decking floorboards are also grooved and we don't get the slippiness so much. We've put rails round with a gate and it makes a great 'playpen' for our 20 month old! Dh built it himself - we got everything (apart from the gate) from Screwfix.

Our decking floorboards are also grooved and we don't get the slippiness so much. We've put rails round with a gate and it makes a great 'playpen' for our 20 month old! Dh built it himself - we got everything (apart from the gate) from Screwfix.

do you think grooved makes a big difference? the timber we were advised to get was Southern Pine which although more expensive is apparently miles better (but it's not grooved). ??

Furball, where did you get the gate? we need one of those too

Personally we wouldn't go for grooved (we've been talking about decking for yonks) but that's mainly cos DH is a Kiwi and has never seen grooved decking before he came here and we haven't seen it when we've been overseas (Canada, US, Oz either) although no doubt someone will tell us it does exist there

We spoke at length to some companies a couple of years ago who pointed out that it is important that the wood is well-preserved or whatever it is they do to it. They pointed out that grooved wood can be bad in that the water/dirt collects in the grooves and if the wood is not good, this will encourage rotting.

Not sure about algae/moss but we get more of this on our north-facing drive than we do on our south-facing patio.

Katierocket - The gate is just a standard wooden picket fence type gate from Homebase.

I think the whole purpose of the grooved decking is so it isn't so slippy when wet, even though miggy has a problem. The wood use for our decking is 'Tanalith pressure treated timber'.

If you make the deck so that the flooring is at an ever so slightly raised angle, the rain will run off (down the grooves) and you won't get any puddles.

I have plans for decking in our garden so I'm following this with interest Furball, how difficult was it to build yourself? I suspect we'll need to get someone in since DH is useless at DIY!

dh started ours last year. The main deck floor is down and this year he needs to do the (2) steps and railings. It's grooved also and quite big. He did a really thorough job (i think) clearing the ground beforehand, digging 12 holes in which he poured cement and placed the upright poles in to set. Then laying the ground with black stuff to stop weeds growing, then built the base and then laid the deck planks. He was a little into DIY before but nothing like this. He searched a few websites and bought a few books and took his time. I think the main thing for him was that preparation was everything. I would estimate he spent 10-15 full days on it last yr. (took 1 weeks holidays and then weekends). I guess it'll probably be june/july before its finished.

Message withdrawn

Soupdragon - He'd not really done anything like it before, and it really is an excellent job he's done. He's since built a pergola over a different area of garden and that too is fantastic. He bought all the stuff from Screwfix took a week off work and hey presto. The rails were from somewhere local. He'd had no real wood diy experience so it could have gone either way. If you want him to answer any questions - post them here and I'll ask him tonight. (Signed photos also available by post )

glad to see this thread as we are also about to build a deck in our backyard. I'm a bit worried as dh is going to do it himself (with some help from Dad)..he's a musician not a handyman . We've gone for non grooved jarrah (aussie stuff) mailny because we wear no shoes a lot and the groves can be a bit uncomfy on the feet. Still, will keep reading for the handy tips. Keep em coming!

I may have to get the pros (or my dad ) involved as my plans are a bit complicated. We inherited a playhouse when we moved in and I plan to lay decking and railing in front of it to form a boat shape with the house as the cabin. Steps down from that deck would lead to a bigger decked area replacing a really stupid patio halfway down our garden.

I've used Screwfix before - they're great!

edgarcat> why red cedar?

only obvious things

• make sure it's well off the ground
• consider putting netting around the perimeter edges (back a bit so you can't see it) to stop animals going under and dying/storing dead food or doing anything else that would smell
• make sure it's in a sunny area or it make get very slippy from growth on it.
• consider carefully any treatments (stains etc) and make sure you get one coat on before you lay the timbers (or you'll never get in all the knooks & crannies)
• definitely get grooved for anti slipping measures
• hardwood lasts longer than softwood, but tannalised softwood (pine etc) is fine provided it's off the ground and in a sunny location.

My DH built our decking- with rails- last autumn. I think it cost double our original budget & still hasn't been painted but it's wonderful to walk on.
Only problem so far was when it was really icy. I stepped out the back door & went straight over onto my back- very painful & very embarrassing.