Another composite deck started.

These are now getting evermore popular, partly because of the rising timber prices along with the very apparent drop in timber quality nationwide, and the quality of composite materials very much improving. This deck is not too dissimilar to a couple of previous builds that i have posted about recently, with the use of mill board plas pro framework, topped off with antique oak board. I have already said in previous posts all about the advantages of mill board over timber, so i wont go into that in detail again, but it’s definitely worth considering if you plan on adding some usable space into your garden.

Usual format for us on this build, so in with the digger for the ground works first of all. It’s always surprising just how much needs digging out for a deck. We have 125mm of rafters, 125mm of joists, and 32mm of deck board.so we usually dig it out 300mm (1 foot) lower than finished height. This can leave you needing a lot of skip space, which can be expensive, so always account for that.

As you can see in the pictures the weather was not on our side…….again! We also bolted a wall plate to the wall as this one was going directly up to the house. The rafters were spaced at 1200mm, with a post which we concrete into the ground also spaced at every 1200mm. The joists were spaced at 360mm as the minimum requirement is 400mm. The joists sat directly onto the rafters, and were joined with a screw each time.

But the biggest brain ache of the job was all of the steps that needed building. Mainly the flight of 14 steps that lead up to the rear garden via the side of the house. The framework was also built with plas pro, and was faced with the antique oak facer supplied. Building steps always takes a long time due to the large amount of cuts needed. But the results are always very good.

The deck boards will not take too long to put on from this point forward, so i should be posting about that in the next few days. Other things coming up are some raised oak sleeper beds, along with sleeper walls and sleeper steps. So keep an eye out for that

As usual feel free to ask any questions. Thank you for your time and interest.