Decking is one of the most versatile products we use when landscaping in Lancaster, the decks we create can be used to gain a lot of height without the need for hundreds of tons of fill, can be tiered easily to make use of otherwise unusable steep hills and can open up huge possibilities to areas where access with machines is restricted, and using traditional hardcore and flagging methods will be just too costly and time consuming.
The preparation for both wooden and composite decking boards begins with the same process. Once we've cleared the area of spoil we spray out the proposed area, and start digging out for the posts. If the deck is close to the ground, we'll use 4inch pressure treated posts, if the deck is going higher than 4ft we'll use 5" posts, for a monster deck 10ft high, 6" posts will be used. We concrete our posts well into the ground, so they are solid and able to withstand the tests of time.
When our posts have set, we'll lay a geo-textile membrane in between the posts to suppress any weed growth. Next we'll attach the joists for the boards to sit on, again this follows a similar pattern to the posts, for low down decks we'll use a 6x2" joist, for the monster deck we'll use 10x2". Once screwed into place, we'll apply a waterproof tape over the top of every joist, this helps to keep water from sitting on the joist, and will help future-proof the whole decking.
As soon as all the joists are fully fixed in place and taped, we can start the easy bit, attaching the boards, the wooden boards and nailed into place and the composite boards are attached with their own hidden fixing system, we'll leave a 5mm gap to allow for expansion and contraction during the changing seasons.
Check out our decking gallery for ideas and inspiration.