Decking

You want decking pal?

Don't do it.
May look ok initially but, even with diligent maintenance, it will deteriorate and eventually rot.

Fitting wooden deckin maybe Frank has a point but if your doing that you want to get your self out of the 90s really.

Recycled composite decking is where it's at.

Eventually rot sure .... But I'll be rotting in the ground long before it.

IIRC decking over 12" requires planning permission.

Unless you’re up for a lot of maintenance like scrubbing it regularly, otherwise it will go green over winter and will be slipperier than a greased piglet. There are some composite ones that have grip inserts, so aren’t as slippery, don’t rot but are 4-5x more expensive.

Once it rots and you decide to rip it out, be warned that some local authorities don't let you take it to the tip. Ask me how I know 🤬

We didn't even put it in.

"improve"

LOL

Don't do it.

Well, possibly it might work with some artificial material, but not wood in the UK. What I've seen of my FiL's decking would strongly discourage me from ever buying a house with it. He spent a while in a dry part of the USA where it's just fine....

I now consider myself something of an expert in this field …

Our current house had a massive decked area out the back. We are on quite a hill and the previous owners didn’t seem to be ones for gardening much so this was an easy fix (!)
I didn’t particularly like it but figured as it wouldn’t need mowing or anything there’s more time for bikes…

I cannot emphasis enough how wrong I was…

I’ve spent years patching up rotten planks, it needed cleaning and oiling every year.
It was horribly slippy in winter
It wasn’t nice to walk on with bare feet, remember this is right out of our lounge and basically the back garden.

I’m told it cost the previous owners about 10 grand (it was a massive deck)

We’ve now chopped it all out.. some of the wood was so rotten I’m amazed the whole lot hadn’t collapsed.

My advice unless it’s a very small area dont do wood decking, it’s a monumental pain and will need replacement in 10-15 years
Composite decking seemed to be horrifically expensive, to the point you could get a patio built for the same cost

Get a patio…..

Im no expert but we moved into our house in 2004 and the back garden was decked. Still has the original deck. I'm not the most diligent, it has been jet washed once and reproofed twice. The decking probably needs replacing soon, the real problem is the wooden supports that go into the ground and the cross braces, they have started to rot and do need replacing. Thinking of using the concrete deck posts this time. From what Ive read it does depend on the quality of wood used for the deck and some are guaranteed for a long time but they do cost substantially more

Rodents like to nest under it too

Horrid. Horrid. Stuff.

Just in the process of ripping the previous owners (ice rink when wet) rotten planks and posts of doom out in our new House..

1 (thankfully old and unused) rodent nest found.
11.. Toads..!!? Found (and Relocated) under the horribly degraded plastic liner they'd put under it..

And sooooooooo much horrendous rubble under it..

Do yourself a favour and put a patio in instead..

(im really not a fan of Decking.. Can you tell?)

I've got a couple of largish decks, the one out the back of the house I built properly, concrete foundations, oiled wood, the whole 9 yards, it's about 40 sqm and is used as an outdoor extension to the living room, i've been out there BBQing tonight and had a party on friday. It's been up 8-9 years (most of it) 2 years (an extension) it's not slippy (unless it's actually icy) doesn't go green, hasn't rotted in the slightest. Just need to reoil every couple of years, takes half a day, and clean it a couple of times a year (hose pipe, a bit of soap and a stiff brush) and a brush to gets leaves and bird shit off it as and when.
The deck it replaced had been up since the 1980s and wasn't built with treated wood, so it took me about 30 minutes to dismantle it. Well, i leant on the corner and half of it came down...

The other deck i pretty much threw up in a long weekend 6 years ago. Treated wood, but nothing else. It's about 50sqm i think.
It does get slippy over the winter, but i clean it with one of those karcher rotary brushes and some deck cleaner in the spring (takes a couple of hours) and that's it. TBH, it doesn't get used from about September to April anyway, as it's too cold and wet out there!
Biggest issue is wasps eating the wood! I'll probably stick a new top on it in a couple of years and "tidy up". Or just refurbish what i can and oil it.

So, yeah, build one if you've got the time to do it properly in the first place and then spend maybe half a day, three or four times a year keeping it clean and reoiling as it needs.

It's things like tape on the top of the cross braces if they are going to struggle to dry out (i've got a metre clear under both of mine and generally good airflow, so they dry out nicely), proper foundations (Concrete feet, not wooden posts into the ground) and putting things together with the proper brackets, screws etc etc that make the difference.

A mate put one together with nails, the whole thing was just wood and nails, nothing to rest on, nothing to keep it square... A couple of the posts rotted through in the space of 3 years and were bodged to fix (postcrete), and within 5 the whole thing was an unusable trampoline.

Similar to Mert, we have a sizeable deck that I built 10 years ago, and maintain it well. Absolutely no issues with it, so do it properly and it’s fine.
My brother put one in 8 years ago, and only occasionally cuprinols it, it’s pretty rotten in places.

Use decent wood, build it properly and looking after it is the key.

Mines 18 years old, a few planks needed replacing this year. Will replace it in few years time, might go composite but not sure about handrails. Wet and forget is good to keep it green free for minimum effort.

If you do fit decker consider using joist decking tape which will prolong the life. Replacing boards is easy but joists can be a a much bigger job. Also ensure you use quality screws preferably with a Torx or Square head drive. Cheap screws can snap when removing/replacing boards.

My DIY decking has started rotting through (to be fair it lasted 15 years and I didn't touch it after the initial treatment), I'll probably replace it with composite decking (although, as others have said, it costs a fortune). I have re-discovered the odd allen key and screw driver that fell through it before, sadly though they're too rusted to be usable (don't do bike maintenance on decking :p ).

I found loads of IKEA cutlery under the deck i took out. Was almost like a history lesson in Swedish cutlery design.

Probably 30 items in total.

All been thrown away now though!

Previous two houses had decks. One was absolutely massive but luckily we moved out before it needed a strip and restain. The second one we had to strip and repaint most winters, was really slippery, and a corner post had rotten away so the entire thing sagged. Living in the SW was a trial by fire for outside wood, I admit, but they're just a pain to maintain.

We moved out, but if we'd stayed we were going to rip it up and replace with a proper patio.

I'm told that composite decks are a lot better as they don't age so quickly, but I'm still dubious.

What are these composite decks like in the full heat of a 30 degree plus summer?  I can't imagine it's very pleasant on bare feet.  Up there with artificial grass I imagine.

I’ve got an area of decking in front of my garden office that is 4 planks wide. We temporarily put down timber as we couldn’t get hold of the composite planks at the time. With that in mind , I never bothered to treat it . It’s been there over 2 years and looks the same as when it was installed.

Or just refurbish what i can and oil it.

What oil did you use?

I build ours in 2005 and it's been great. Some of the boards are starting to rot now and I'm in two minds about whether to try and patch it and tart it up for a few more years (oil), or to bite the bullet and put a new top on it (It's slightly raised, dry underneath and built with concrete foundations, etc. so I'm expecting the supporting structure to be sound (there's no sign of any deterioration, anyway)).

I used treated timber, but other than an annual wash with fungicide to stop it going slippy, it's not had any other treatment.

What are these composite decks like in the full heat of a 30 degree plus summer?

cant speak for 30 degrees but at 40 degrees side by side they were pretty comparable.

wood gets hot too in full sun - standing on either wasnt much fun.

What oil did you use?

Used this stuff. Not the cheapest (or most expensive) but seems to work well.

deck oil

We used hardwood for ours - it never gets slippy and I think we've oiled it once in 6 years. It's a nice silvery/grey colour now,

Im thinking of doing the same. Small front garden is a mess, so im just going to cover it entirely with decking.

You'll pay about £3.50/meter.

You'll also need deck joists, plus either posts, more modern steel spikey things. But its a relatively easy project and lots of fun. Always nice to complete such yourself.

An impact drill will make life so much easier, and make sure screws are corrosion resistant.

Another tip is to seriously coat the underside of each board with something like bitchumen, and do the posts too. They cant really be got at once finished, so making them super protected is a good idea.

And dont forget to put down a very heavy duty weed control matting first.

Used this stuff.

Thanks - nearest stockist is about 1000 miles away 😀

(It gives me something to look for though.)

Never had an issue with wooden decking. Got a couple of small decked areas, 1m x 3m at the back of the garage, and another that's 3m by 3m at the side. Quick jet wash once or twice during winter, then just oil it - takes no time, and I have a massive 25l drum of the stuff - lasts ages and goes on quick. Oil is far better than any other preserver. Just keep the colour neutral.

I'd never use composite, plastic does not belong in a garden. Sorry. Our decking is on an area that's impossible to lay a patio unfortunately. Patio in the back garden though !

Thanks – nearest stockist is about 1000 miles away 😀

😀 Ok, so they don't sell it in the UK then! Sorry!

plastic does not belong in a garden

Much like concrete. But then very little if any of the concrete folk insist on using for patios is recycled yet verifiable recycled composite decking is half recycled wood waste half recycled hwdp ....

But then - I used new scaffolding boards for my decking so I'll probably die in a death of stupidity......