[Closed] decking

You are going to have to treat regularly anyway if you are going to have any sort of lifespan out of your investment. British larch is a very strong and hard-wearing wood. When tested, it has proved to be up to 50% harder than common pine. The most beneficial characteristic of British larch is its natural durability, which results from its extremely high resin content.. The Larch will start silvering/ going grey in the first sun if untreated. I'd recommend a environmentally friendly, breathable natural oil for the Larch to bring out its natural colours. Also Larch is more stable than pine meaning it will handle getting wet & drying out better. It'll look 1000 times better than the pine.
The treated pine, although treated, will still need a treating every two years at least IMO if you want it to last.
Hope this helps.

thanks tymbian.

any issues with getting reject boards, which have knots etc
Visually i dont mind the knots, but will they not last as well?

DON'T DO IT!!!!

Decking is cursed, as my wife will testify having broken both a wrist and a leg slipping over on it in the past.

If you must get it, make sure it's the non-slip stuff or boards that you have treated with sand-filled varnish.

Ours used to get bloody slippery too at out old house, was too shaded
a day every year to properly clean it and treat it, was a pain in the arse tbh but it was a nice spot to sit\socialise

It's not wood but Millboard composite stuff looks great, one of my mates had some put down last year. Expensive and is largely plastic so not very eco but it'll last forever, looks great, and shouldn't suffer with the slipperiness associated with wood decking

Plastic is not an option, its against my religion 🙂
Crocs and plastic garden furnitures are also banned.

Mine's lethal to, I often do bambi impressions when outside on the decking cleaning my bike, I'd also advise against doing maintenance involving removing small bits from the bike over decking. I haven't treated it since I put it down 10 years ago though but going to look into putting some grip stuff on it this summer

Mikkel

Agree with banning of plastic furniture but Crocs??? wtf?

Decking is good if it transforms a sloped area into a more useful space - otherwise some sort of slabs might be better.......and less maintainance!

Crocs is first step on the road to buying plastic furniture.
I have done a study and its true 🙂

Your study had a sample size of 1!

Slabs involve breaking up existing concrete, decking goes over the top. It's the lazy option

Fair enough, I'm a bit anti it myself but it does look nice and have less of the drawbacks of wood.

I wouldn't ever pick decking again though. The other bad thing about decks is they make perfect homes for rodents too 😕

I'm with you on the Crocs and Plastic furniture, slippery slope

IIRC if your decking is over 12" you require planning permission!!!!!!

The other bad thing about decks is they make perfect homes for rodents too

Got one of these!

[img] [/img]

Timber decking itself isn't slippery, it's the build up of algae/slime on it that is slippery. Regularly brushing it down with a stiff bass broom will minimise the chances of it being slippery.

If you don't mind a more rustic finish and aren't going to be walking around barefoot then using 50mm x 150mm (or similar) treated sawn carcassing is less expensive and less slippery (a la north shore...).

Larch and pine are both redwood softwoods and will last longer if pressure treated. As tymbian says, larch is generally stronger. If you can get Cedar, that is very durable and British Western Red Cedar will cost much the same as Larch. All timber will bleach to grey in sunlight if not coloured from time to time.

Hardwood boards eg Yellow Balau and non-slip boards generally are 3 to 5 times more expensive than softwood. Hardwood will still get slippery in the same way as moulded softwoods though.

[i]IIRC if your decking is over 12" you require planning permission!!!!!! [/i]

12 inches? What high, wide, long?

Nice background Surfer lol

12" high, ours will be lower than that.

12 inches above ground level needs planning permission. Introduced a few years ago. Not an issue for us

I wouldn't have it again, I opnly did it when junior was born as the house was about 5 ft higher than the garden with quite a few steps, made for a nice play area for him but a bit of rain made it lethal, and the amount of times i lifted boards up to get things that he'd lost down the gaps. 😈