Other Any builders here? Need deck advice

Girlfriends has me building a garden deck for her over the summer and in handy enough with DIY stuff so I'm confident about the overall project however I want someone with experience to take a quick look as the plan I've drawn out and advise if the concrete foundations for the post are spaced correctly and adequate to support it.

Am out on a shopping trip with her for her birthday this last weekend but when I get home I'll upload a photo of the autocad sketch I've come up with if someone would be so kind to give a little input

 

I'm not a builder, but I did construct a deck in my garden, at 4.5x3.5m a couple of summers ago, with the help of my buddy who is a builder. Happy to run the plan past him if you like?

 

AutoCAD! I used an envelope and youtube to do mine

 

Haha I used a sheet of A4, a sharpie, a set square and a calculator. And lots of screws.

 

Decking is quite easy to do, the hardest bit is making sure the posts are square and level.

 

Cheers guys, I'll get the upload sorted after school run

Lol well autocad was one of those things I always wanted to have a play with and I learn stuff a lot better if I'm interested and aiming towards something so just gave it a go.

I'm not so worried with the getting it level and square etc, it's more making sure how I'm attaching to the house and making a firm foundation so it doesn't collapse after a few weekend summer bbq's lol

 

I'm assuming your deck is at (or near) ground level. If so when I did mine (which was years ago) the recommendation was if it was attached to the house it should be done so the deck surface was bellow the damp course. This was out of the question for me as the ground level was already quite high around the house so I didn't attach it to the house at all, leaving a small gap (which in my case really could have done with being smaller) so you have no issues with the deck draining / trapping water against the house and causing damp problems. The rear posts / frame work sit maybe 6-8 inches from from the house and the boards overhang a little to fill the gap.

 

Has anyone used the looks-like-real-wood-but-never-have-to-maintain stuff for a deck?

I'm sure there's a more technical term for it, but I've seen it a few times and was really impressed with it - would never know that it's not actually wood unless you put your nose right up to it.

 

No - I got wood. (Badum-tsh)

I just pressure wash it an oil it, 'cos I'm old fashioned.

 

Good tip btw is do not skimp on the screws you use. Eventually decking will want to come up, the stuff doesn't last forever after all. Good screws will make all the difference here as the heads won't strip during assembly or corrode much after a few years outside.

I had to remove our decking last year, even with the right tools it was a frustrating job for that very reason. Be choosey about where you get the screws from and for the love of all that is good avoid B&Q like the plague.

 

I just happened to be ringing around a few landscape design companies to kick off the process of a full garden revamp this summer, part of which will be a deck, and the thought had occurred to me.

In the last place I did some lovely sandstone paving, but it was a little bit of a pain to keep lovely with a bleach mix and pressure wash. The current owners of my old house have put it up for sale and I've seen on rightmove the repercussions of not doing this for two years, it's disgusting.

I'll be choosing all of the plants on the basis of the fact that they won't die if I never touch them, I'll be choosing the stone to be dark enough that a blast with the pressure washer once in a while is all that it needs, so was thinking something similarly maintenance free would be good for the deck.

 

D'oh!

My 9mx3m decking is down with B&Q screws. Some are okay, but some have rusted beyond all hope.

It has been down 6 years this summer though. I didn't do too badly!

 

You're probably on to something there, to be honest! Is it significantly more costly than the wood equivalent?

 

In my limited searching around for artificial wood decking, it seems to range from what's not really a massive amount more to "holy-flying-buttholes-that's-expensive" sort of costs.

I'd expect the most expensive ones to last forever, be utterly inert and entirely indistinguishable from real exotic woods and the cheap ones to look like plastic at a distance, flex and creak badly and be lethal when wet. Where the happy medium is I'm not yet sure, certainly on my list of things to figure out.

 

Putting the decking down with B&Q screws is okay, it's just taking it up which can be a bit of an issue...

We've got a small garden, but because there's no light, we decided to deck it all, bar the borders. Well it turns out that's a fairly decent area of decking, was not fun at all to remove. An alarming number of screws simply stripped their threads when you tried to remove them. Others snapped in the middle, meaning I had to lever them out from the wood with pliers. Tried using manual screw drivers, a combi drill, impact driver, they all had the same results.

 

Well it will be real wood rather than composite, bit cheaper that way. I'm looking at Kreg for the decking screws as I plan to use there side fixing system to hide the fixing and they offer a protected coated screw or stainless steel.

 

The man speaks the truth, not long moved into our new place and I decided to lift the existing decking but ran into a little problem with the screw nail heads snapping or just not budging at all.

I had to rip each panel separately, this happened to my hammer



I had to buy a new, heftier one, which did the trick.



It would seem the previous owners never cleaned under the decking.

 

Oh my... is that fluffy stuff mould or spider webs? I can't decide which one is more horrific.

 

Quite. It looks fithy!

/boke

 

It was weird, it seemed like dog hair but there was so much I'm not sure - I've never seen anything like it.

It's all gone now, looking nice and clean waiting for the new decking and fence to be installed.