Decking board advice please:28mm Redwood or 32mm tanalised pressure-treated softwood?

pinksprout

I have been rumaging around on google and ebay for decking boards. I suppose, without really knowing much about timber, I would prefer to purchase hardwood boards but cost will probably prohibit this choice... unless someone can suggest or recommend a good timber merchant or supplier of cheap hardwood decking? Otherwise would 28mm thick "pre-treated Redwood" be a decent softwood to get or 32mm "tanalised pressure-treated softwood" ? Any preference out of these two (the cost is similar) or any other suggestion. For thirty three 2.4metre length boards the cost will be around £200 incl delivery.

Some of the boards will very slightly overhang the edge of our pond. When it rains would the tanalised wood present any risk to the fish do you think?

Thanks for your help.

pinksprout

Can anyone help please?

dampdaveski

Hi sprout,
for a start redwood is also a softwood
I suspect the cheaper of the 2 is a white wood, this is not as naturally resiliant as redwood.
So basically redwood is better quality than whitewood (confusing isn't it)
Once timber is pre treated and has dried it should present no problems to your pond, though best double check with the supplier.
I would go for pre treated redwood meself :-)
hope this is of use

pinksprout

Thanks for your helpful advice dampdave. I did realise that Redwood is a softwood as I said and, haviain.ng now checked with the second supplier, it turns out that the 32mm "tanalised pressure-treated softwood" is also Swedish redwood so unless I can find hardwood for a competitive price I will probably order that. Thank you again.

Alan_M_2

Hardwood will be a multiple of the price, I'm currently doing a deck in our garden and using this stuff http://www.qualitydecking.co.uk/

Ideally I would have liked teak, but it's just too expensive (thousands as opposed to hundreds for the softwood.)

Also do check the width of the board, some of the thicker ones tend to be narrow...therefore you need more.

The boards I'm using are 144mm x 27mm but some are only 120mm wide, so it can often be a false economy buying a cheaper board then finding our you need more.

quoia

B&Q do a REVERSIBLE (Smooth/Grooved) 28mm x 144mm x 2.4M for £4.98

Furthermore if you buy 20 or more you can get 20% off making them just £3.98

33 boards would cost just £131.34 and delivery over £50 is FREE.

They do have a the smaller board that Alan M refers to 25mm thick and 120mm wide - still 2.4m long - these are just £2.48 - basically half the unit price of the others.

WICKES also have these (the 28 x 144) for the same price and also have the 20% off 20 or more deal

Alan_M_2

quoia wrote: »

B&Q do a REVERSIBLE (Smooth/Grooved) 28mm x 144mm x 2.4M for £4.98

When buying decking it's the linear metre price you need to keep an eye on.

£2.07 a linear metre is actually exactly what I'm paying for the Qdeck Canterbury board (also reversible) and it's very good quality decking. However, I'm buying 4.8 metre lengths which means far fewer joints. I do have a reasonable area to cover though (60 sq/m).