Doing Decking ourselves!

Firemunchkin

We are in the process of redoing our (completely bare) garden. We recently demolished the brick shed which sat directly outside our back door. Since doing so, we have a lot more light into the house and the garden looks enormous - so we're pleased. We've salvaged the majority of the bricks, which we are going to re-use as a brick pathway and a BBQ.

There is now a large flat concrete foundation where the shed used to be, and a horrible expanse of concrete 'patio' (not paving though) which runs along the back of the house (about 1m in width). It's difficult to describe without a photo but it's quite ugly.

We worked out that the best way to cover up all this horrible concrete is to put some decking over the top of it all. It would be an L shape going right up to the back of the house, and wouldn't cover any of the existing lawn.

As money is rather tight (we have a budget of around £600), we're doing it ourselves. DH thinks he can do the decking, and is currently working out how to build the frame.

There are many places to get the wood, and we want decent quality wood not the cheap stuff (we saw a batch of the 'basics' decking boards at B&Q which were actually mouldy!) and the quotes are very varied.

I'm interested to know what decking boards others have used, and their experience of it since installation. I think this will help us to make a decision on which wood to get.

If anyone has any other tips on laying decking for the first time (we've looked at lots of online guides, but sometimes personal experience gives you the best advice) - please feel free to share.

We're total novices at this, so please be gentle with us!

wallbash

Must start with the truth , I hate decking. Can be very slippery and needs maintenance.
Have you costed this out ? £600 seems on the cheap side, even as a DIY project. Can you give us the total length . Also what are you planning to use as the supports.Have you worked out the height.

eyeinthesky

First bit of advice, go to a timber merchant, and not one of the diy sheds. The price and quality will be much better, and you may even get free delivery, if they are not too far away. No chance of that at B&Q etc. I used 4 x 2 for the framing, just nailed together. The timber merchant will probably have the decking boards in 4 or 5 metre lengths, allow enough for cutting, say 10%. When you lay the boards, don't leave a gap between them, this may sound odd, but they will shrink and make a gap themselves. Ask the timber merchant about screws, and don't buy "decking screws". The word decking gives an excuse to charge ridiculous amounts of money, look for zinc coated or similar. Lastly, measure and mark the centres of your framing, onto the deck boards, and square lines across the boards to show where the screws are to go. this will give you straight lines of screws, and look neater. Hope some of this helps.

Avoriaz

If end to end joins are required, stagger the joins.

Whoever installed the decking (the previous owners presumably) in our garden did an awful job. Not enough joists so the boards sag and all the joins are in a straight line.

We are ripping it up this year.


Have you considered putting slabs on top of the concrete? That would probably look better than decking and last a lot longer too.

jjlancs

Decking is just a massive mouse house, think about it, you drop a few crumbs from you patio dinner, and the mice or rats move in beneath your feet, would never build one.

Swipe

Order some flagstones from your local builders merchant instead. Loads cheaper, faster to do + free delivery.

xyz123

We have decking put in our house by previous owner. It was done good structurly. But I agree with others it's a pain to maintain it.

If you did get it, spend a bit of money getting the proper decking oil. Liberon make great (and expensive) products but they are very high quality.

bambos

We considered decking for our garden as the patio slabs are VERY old and dated and we wanted something modern and quite low maintenance. When we looked at the cost of decking and the fact that it has to be treated every year we decided to go for a patio and are buying our slabs today they are black/grey and lovely. They were not cheap but much cheaper than decking, total price was £150 and my uncle is going to lay it for £60 so much less than decking. I would think seriously about your choice as it is a big cost.

Decking can get slippy so you would need non slip deck boards which of course will be more expensive. Wood rots and you will need to treat it yearly.

Patio slabs last longer, may need cleaning eventually and weeding between them unless you seal them.

Both have negatives but for us the best option was slabs for our 13 meter sq patio.