Decking Advice

MaggotAJ

Im looking at fitting a small decking area for my mum and have been looking at the Richard Burbidge website. I have also been using their online planning tool to design and price up the project. I think I have heard some good things about them in the past, but my memory isnt great. Just wondered if anyone has used them or heard anything about them?

On the money saving side of things they are offering £50 back when you spend over £500 - which my mum will be doing if we decide to go with them.

Piggo_2

We put decking down about 5 years ago and were really pleased with it. I would say to make sure it can drain properly and you treat it with decent quality stuff if you're going to. Certain areas of ours doesn't drain well resulting in puddles and some stain we used made it slippy when wet one year!

Orange_King

When you say a small area, how small?

I managed to put down a deck of about 14 x 12 ft for about £400 in April - £35 extra for the decking oil which has had 2 coats but including all the concrete, screws, boards and supports etc.

I would recommend you price it out from a few suppliers first and ensure that they are supplying the decent boards which will last for years.

blue_monkey_2

One thing to bear in mind is that it gets VERY slippery when it is snowey icy so if your mum is elderly I would give this some really serious consideration and maybe invest in the decking that has the non-slip stuff on the top of the grooves. I've been over several times in the winter the first year we had it down and it hurts!!

We love the decking, it is easy to maintain, look after and clean, we give it a scrub once a year however we do not think the guy that did it used the best quality deck boards and it has started to split in places and we think it'll need replacing in the next few years. I am not sure if this is normal, nor how you can ensure the decking you buy is not going to do this though, it looked really good when he put it down and he said it had been treated (as did the label). Maybe someone else can advise on this.

STOCKWIRE

blue_monkey wrote: »

One thing to bear in mind is that it gets VERY slippery when it is snowey icy so if your mum is elderly I would give this some really serious consideration and maybe invest in the decking that has the non-slip stuff on the top of the grooves. I've been over several times in the winter the first year we had it down and it hurts!!

We love the decking, it is easy to maintain, look after and clean, we give it a scrub once a year however we do not think the guy that did it used the best quality deck boards and it has started to split in places and we think it'll need replacing in the next few years. I am not sure if this is normal, nor how you can ensure the decking you buy is not going to do this though, it looked really good when he put it down and he said it had been treated (as did the label). Maybe someone else can advise on this.

All timber is liable to develop shakes (cracks) due to our climate. You will tend to find they will come and go depending on the moisture content of the timber. The cracks should not effect the strength or the life of the timber if it was correctly tanalised.