decking-love it or hate it!!

I suppose its a bit like Marmite! well I think we have finally decided to go for decking for our patio. Drain covers and slight slopes in two directions will make it the easier option. I must admit that i didnt want it at first as its been around for some time and the fad for it has waned but as my hubby said -we are doing it for us not to sell the house so it doesnt matter- (he sometimes comes out with some wise stuff but mostly its just inane facts about completely ridiculous things!) So we are now in the process of looking at whats about. We have decided on plain instead of grooved and softwood for financial reasons so if anyone has any pointers on how to tell the good from the bad I would be grateful.A local timber merchant is selling it for �£0.99 a metre and this seems to be cheap as i expected it to cost a lot more. I am giving hubby the weekend off this week as he's going on a stag do but want to crack the whip for when he gets back and get the wood ordered!

 

Hardwood may be a better investment if you are planning on staying in house.

You are right though - make your plans for yourself, its you that has to live with it.

 

LG is that planed timber ie smooth.
If its for exterior use it should be pressure treated and most pressure treated softwood is sawn timber, not very nice, if you should want to walk on it in bare feet.
Waco is right, it probably would be better to go for the grooved hardwood if you can possibly stretch to it. Any under framing would be fine in sawn treated softwood

 

The point of the grooves is to help drainage. This is quite important if like me you have to go for treated softwood for financial reasons, and if your timber is not treated, it's definitely a false economy. Another thing you need to plan carefully is the way in which your decking is going to drain, so that the grooves or in your case planks follow the slight slope. And don't do what my builder did- he put the planks so close that water can't drain between them in places. Obviously you don't want gaping cracks, but don't jam them together either!

 

You should allow up to 6mm between the boards when laying depending on the width of the board. This is to allow the boards to swell in wet weather, if they become tight they could cause all sorts of problems including forcing themselves up from their fixings.

 

I went to a well respected timber merchant yesterday for some samples. They are really nice - i got some softwood and a hardwood but as this is 3 times more expensive will go with the softwood. Its a lot more substancial than i thought and has ribs on the one side. Am going to somewhere else for a sample today to see if the cheaper one is any different.

 

well we finally ordered all the wood yesterday to be delivered next weekend! I am sooo excited!Mind you we were a bit like the keystone cops trying to work out how much timber we needed. In the end we had an amount of timber so we added a few bits extra for 'just in case'Cant wait until we (hubby!)makes a start. We have also decided that we are going to have little blue lights on the top beams of the pergola. Its gonna be so pretty!