Decking

[davo67]

Hi again,

Any recommendations for someone to build some decking?

We'd like a deck built at the front of our house, around 6m by 3m (approx) with a railing around the sides and a couple of steps up, with handrails.

Anyone had something similar built, and if so, any builders/firms that you recommend?

thx in advance.

[Suradit69]

If you have plans to have farang friends over on the deck, make sure the railing is at least chest height. Farang tend to fall off balconies and such quite easily and whenever it happens (and it happens with alarming regularity) all the Thai Visa experts immediately blame Thailand and low railings.

[davo67]

ha ha, yeah, good point

[samuijimmy]

I would check out the "artificial planks" , I think Home Mart have, maybe HomePro?... far less maintenance problems...

agree about the railing ^

[Tropicalevo]

A couple of things to think about.

Is the deck to be in the shade or in the sun? What materials? Where is your location?

If you are after a true wooden deck (Mine are now tiles/sandwash) then be prepared for high maintenance/replacement. The wooden deck that I did have lasted 10 years - but it was in the shade until 4 pm every day and was rarely rained on.

I have one customer with artificial planks - they only lasted 2 years before requiring complete sanding/repainting. Out in full weather - zero cover.

Another customer with grade A teak planks - require 'staining' every year - or you go for the faded look. Again, zero cover from the weather.

One thing that tends to be overlooked - the frame to support the deck. You will probably need high quality hard wood - anything else will not last. I have see builders use cheap wood for the frame/support and the deck collapsed after a few years. Do not forget the termite treatment.

Last thing to watch for - the Samui scam. You pay for good quality wood - but something less is delivered and installed. The builder pockets the money. (I cannot tell the difference between different quality woods.)

Please note - I am not a builder or a wood 'expert'. Just sharing the experience of a few years on the island.

I will send a pm with the number of a guy who recently rebuilt a deck for one of my custoemrs. The customer was very happy with the result.

Good luck.

[davo67]

thx for all the replies.

not fussed about whether its real wood or the concrete wood /artificial planks. will definitely treat for termites if needed.

luckily theres only direct sunlight for a couple of hours until the roof & trees give some cover. either way, i accept yearly maintenance/painting may be necessary.

[julesandmartin]

A small warning about 'concrete wood'... we bought such material in the 18mm stair tread form to replace some decayed wood steps down to a pool deck, these steps were secured and suspended across steel risers at each end about 800m apart.

My guy installed the steps then took a run up them only for one to snap clean in half and for him to fall right through with a single leading leg, luckily bruised but not broken we removed them immediately and replaced with wood again so as not to invite future accident.

Subsequently we built a deck using the interlocking tongue-and-grooved version of the same material reducing the centers of the underlying framing support to 500mm, no snapping so far but a lot of flex when walking so in retrospect 350mm centers may have been better. Regarding the framing and the well made warning above not sure how high you want the decking to be but we achieved a decent look by sinking solid cement blocks into the ground as very dwarf walls and laying the boards on top using a pin and dowel fixing into the block making the whole project almost maintenance free. PM if you need clarification by a picture.

If allowed on here I would have no hesitation in recommending from experience the wood stop on the left just after the Nikki Beach (Lipa Noi) lights heading from Nathon to Namuang. They have helped us many times and have found them to be totally transparent about wood qualities and have always given excellent service and free delivery.

[davo67]

thx julesandmartin, thats some very good advice. pm sent, would love to see any pix you have of any stages of the construction