Garden Decking

My garden stretches around my house and due to the small nature of it the rear of it is heavily shaded and very very boggy. The patio is sinking into the mud and the turf I laid last year is non existant now.

As a result I am looking at decking the area. The first quote I got back was £3000 + VAT for 25m2 laid. i was horrified at this price, expecting to pay around £1500 max!

Before the other quotes come back in & with a long bank holiday weekend in a couple of weeks I am considering doing it myself. Concrete in the posts, build a lattice and laid the deck?

Has anyone ever done this before? Any advice would be gratefully received!

Cheers guys :)

Dont forget the weed stopper-er stuff laid underneath, thought about drainage? If it's currently a bog where is any water going to run off to ?

Decking would sit above it, and aside from the concreted in posts would sit exactly the same way as it has done for the last few years.

As for weeds, there isn't a single one there despite turf being laid last year!

I am uploading some pictures but it is not an easy or cheap way to fix, drainage wise, its just low ground surrounded by walls & houses! :(

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...321_173834.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...321_173816.jpg


edit: General idea, is that the trees hide most sunlight, and between the house foundations, wall foundations and the neighbours garden sloping down to mine (as well as my side garden sloping down towards house/back garden) drainage is never gunna be sorted without heavy equipment! Everything from the house to the fence to the wood chipped flower bed would be decked! :)

I'd be tempted to use these
http://www.diyclick2buy.com/item/met...-accesssories/
Rather than concrete?

But then I've only ever put in fencing and gates....

Just make sure you've got decent footings, if your patio is sinking, then the decking will as well without some careful planning.

Do you have a drain somewhere near it? You *could* technically use the anti-weed stuff (assuming it's waterproof) to create channel(s) to direct any water to a surface drain? Few bits of wood to raise the opposite side et voila.

Not sure about those fence spikes, unsure how much weight they'll take and I'd think you'd want a broader cross section. Re-use your current flags and sink a couple down a few feet, concrete over the top and the posts in said concrete (?)

Do it yourself, decking is easy to do, as far as the base goes you are best off laying MOT1, that would give you a solid base, stop any type of weeds.

Avoid places like B&Q ect for deck boards they are crap, get decent ones (min 1/3 inch boards)

We did ours last year 10ft x 12ft (just over 11 SQ metres) for £450 (friend has a trade account) but was quoted £1600+ from local company's and got our stuff from build base

woah big boy.. slow down.

Before you spend a small fortune on the floor.. get the fence all replaced. It looks like it's due to fall over. If it belongs to the neighbour.. be a good neighbour and go talk to them and volunteer to go halves on a new fence.. it'll make your garden look much better, AND if you fit decking... how will new fancing be easily fitted when it DOES fall over... which .. it might do if I sneeze on it.

Personally, if that was my garden, I'd have a small, diagonally offset decking through the centre, not to the edges.. or maybe a round one...., and loads of quality slate chippings or similar round the edge.. possible with long grasses planted through them, as they survive anywhere. You're looking to add a third dimension... a step or two.. to add interest.

The trees are lovely, so they need highlighting... maybe raised beds around them filled with hosta's

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en...w=1876&bih=973

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en...w=1876&bih=973

scan through those to see what I mean... gravel and decking, two or three heights.. all very close.. only one step between each.. and AVOID going parallel with the walls of the house or garden.

One thing you DO need to consider though... decking gets SLIPPERY with moss and mould if it's dark and wet.. and if you already have that issue, you might not be investing wisely with decking at all.

I'm gonna go off on a tangent for a moment.

trees.... shade... moisture...

if you dont mind working VERY HARD with a fork and spade and maybe buy a pickaxe.... being v carefull not to hit pipes.....

if you bought lots of quality bark chippings.. I mean hundreds of pounds of it.. not just 5 bags.... if you dug good holes, mixed good compost into them, and planted shade lovers,,, if you made a winding, uneven shaped path... with the wood chippings....

http://www.flower-gardening-made-eas...den-path-1.jpg

http://blogs.vashonbeachcomber.com/g...ade-Garden.jpg

i think you might find peace, comfort.. and a lovely place to sit in summer.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7Xo8SXXS3Z...e+4-2011-3.jpg


sometimes... you mustn't fight nature.. you must flow with her.

Shade and damp don't need to be the enemy.. and once per year, £50 on fresh chippings and you're sorted!

Time for HEXUS.gardening? :)

Thank you all for the input, especially Zak!

I have very very little time in the grand scheme of things, I work a 45-50 hour week, every week, have a 45min commute each way and have a daughter who lives 150miles away who i see most weekends. I also have a girlfriend & once a month an attempt at a social life! :p

There is no usable drain nearby, I did the channels & drainage tunnels with my parents garden a few years ago but they had a pond that could take the excess water. With me the garden is literally the lowest point of the surrounding area.

The deck would run 'away' from the house, with the lower end towards the rear flower bed to prevent standing water. The posts would be concreted/postcreted in to prevent sinkage, as the patio is in one corner.

The decking would be a long weekends worth of work, then job done in theory. It would be regularly swept & maintained but something that doesn't require regular attention. I also like the idea of having a functional garden, over aesthetics. The french doors would open straight onto the deck and would make it really usable space in the summer! I am hosting two stag dos in the spring and want the decking ready for that.

I am going to create a flower bed/raised bed between the decking & the fence and when the neighbours renovate their garden (this summer, they moved in a couple of months ago) do the fence with them - It does need looking at, but my time scales don't allow me to wait till then to do the decking.

I am also going to keep a wide (3-4) foot bed between the decking and the rear wall and that's when some plants will be installed, I will no doubt be turning to hexus for ideas there as well! :)


edit:
With getting the wood, i was loosing at buying from Wickes. The reviews seem positive enough and the price seems very very good! They are a couple of miles down the road and I like the the idea of a 'super market' style buy & return policy.

Boards: http://www.wickes.co.uk/invt/543265
Posts for the ground (cut to 50-60cm): http://www.wickes.co.uk/fence-post/invt/542003/
Cross joists: http://www.wickes.co.uk/exterior-gra...m/invt/101318/

Wickes aren't bad, they're owned by Jewsons now if memory serves, the quality of their building materials has actually improved recently because of that. It's still always worth checking with a local timber/builders merchant though. We made two pieces of decking for our garden to cover existing patio's and it worked out much cheaper with a little haggling down there than it did at B&Q.

Ground planting hostas and longer grasses will help draw the eye and add layers of height, decorative grasses can spread quite quickly though and hostas are prime snail food so they can take a little looking after/careful planting. Ferns, Cornus and Forget Me Nots do well in shadey corners and more boggy ground too :)

As far as raised beds go, perhaps old railway sleepers might be worth a look? They last forever and a day and are relatively cheap if you can come by them locally, we used them around our decking/pond area and they blend in very nicely yet don't collect moss a lichen as quickly as normal timber.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Knoxville

Ground planting hostas and longer grasses will help draw the eye and add layers of height, decorative grasses can spread quite quickly though and hostas are prime snail food so they can take a little looking after/careful planting. Ferns, Cornus and Forget Me Nots do well in shadey corners and more boggy ground too :)

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bloody hell...I had NO IDEA Knox was into green stuff... excellent excellent advice my friend :)

However... Snail/Slugs and Hostas... there is a trick....

Ash from the fire (presuming you HAVE A FIRE).. and if not... crunched up egg shells. All around the base.

Ash from a fire is just brilliant.... no slugs can move across it AND it improves the soil.

If your B&Q is anything like the one here they give away trade accounts like free sweets and you can get a nice discount from that

All suggestions duly noted, no fire here, but the girlfriends family & my parents have one when they move back to the UK so might be able to nab some buckets of it from them! :)

Will be referring back to this thread for planting ideas providing I don't nail myself to the decking and give up! ;)