Great tips for installing wooden timber decking

Adding a deck to your home is a rewarding job. Not only can a deck increase the value of your home but it can increase your enjoyment of it. Think of summers spent sipping lemonade and catching the sun, and early winter mornings, wrapped up in blankets and drinking your favourite coffee, watching the sun rise.

You can build the deck yourself and save hundreds of dollars on the installation and staining. We’ve compiled a list of some of the best tips for building your own deck.

Remember before you build your deck to be sure that you’re not blocking access to any important fuses, electrical wiring or plumbing. If your deck needs to go where these elements are present you’ll need to build the deck so that it grants access to these areas with ease. Also be sure not to block in an air conditioning unit or any utility meters.

When you’re building your deck consider beforehand how you want to utilize your new space. Make sure that you’re making enough room for everything you have in mind, without creating too much of a surplus. Often our ideas may seem quite large in theory but in fact turn out to be too small to accommodate the deck chairs, tables and grills we wanted to be able to set out on them.

Quick Tips for Deck Building

• Always nail a thinner board to a thicker board.
• When nailing boards together, do so at an angle. This will bind the boards together with greater strength.
• Use nails that have been treated beforehand to make them more durable. Nails that haven’t been treated will rust and break much sooner.
• For maximum strength use spiraled nails.
• When butting two lengths of boards together, stagger the nails so that they don’t become entangled.
• Wear gloves to keep your hands protected.
• Not all boards will have square ends. Check them all before laying them.
• Blunt the tips of nails with a hammer to ensure that you don’t splinter dry wood when nailing them together. Blunt nails will drill into wood, whereas sharp nails tend to splinter wood.

Don’t forget that your deck will be a finished, visible product when you’re done. There is no substitute for careful, measured work. Be sure that your boards lay flush against one another and that the end result is level.

When staining your boards be sure to follow the manufacturer’s instructions for the best results. Wood should be dry and clean when stained.

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