by Daniel Bell
If you’re thinking about installing a decking area for the new year, here’s how to get it right.
Pick the Right Wood
First of all, you need to source your wood. This is something you can leave to a builder if you’re not going to get involved in the planning or building part of the process. But if you’re going to be a little more hands-on than that, this is one of the very first challenges you should strive to overcome. For me, the best kind of wood you can use for an outdoor decking area is always going to be a high-quality timber. George Hill Timber merchants sell these materials, so see what prices you can get and don’t settle for bad wood.
Get it Fitted Properly
The fitting process is very important. If mistakes are made, you will regret it later on when you face further problems. You should make sure that you know exactly what you’re doing and have the right tools at hand if you plan to do the work yourself. If you don’t think you have the right skills to get the work done by yourself, you should hire a professional tradesperson to do it. They will be able to bring their skills and expertise to the task, and the end result will probably be greater.
Plan How You Want to Use It
How you organize your decking area should depend on how you plan to use it. This is important because it has to fit your specific needs. There’s no point in following a plan in a magazine if you want to use it in a different way to everyone else. So, think about why you installed the decking in the first place. Maybe you want it to be more suitable for your kids. Or maybe you want to be able to use it all year round. All of these kinds of ideas will have an impact on how you adapt your decking area.
Add a Cooking and Dining Area
A decking area is for socializing and relaxing with friends and family in the summer. So, it makes sense for you to make a specific space for cooking and dining. You can easily add a barbecue and a small area where you can sit and eat with friends and family. This is the kind of thing that you’ll be glad you have in place when summer finally arrives. You’ll have the chance to create great food and share it with the people you love. You could even create a marble-topped stone area that acts as a table, and then place chairs around it.
Link the Home to the Garden
The decking in your garden also acts as a kind of bridge between the back of the home and the garden. You should think about how this will function. You could add some steps that make the transition from the decking area to the lawn down below a little easier. This is easy enough to do. You just need to use the same wood you used to create the rest of the decking area. You can then buy a metal handrail and screw it to the wooden steps. It’ll finish off the decking area and provide a link between the home and garden too.
