Garden help

[Justanothergeordie]

Here you go. One is of the bottom of the doors and plastic sill with a brick step I'm going to take out. You can also see how little gap I've got between the flags and the kitchen floor. The other 2 are of the tree base and the state of the flags themselves...

 

[hansPulesh]

Ahhhhh ok, that make a lot more sense now..... that black plastic under your door is a DPC. It's not a sill. okay. I see what you mean.

I'd take the steps out to give you more room, and fit the decking frame inside the door inset - so follow the shape of the building with the decking frame. Then yes, deck board up to the door frame. You could have the decking touching the door frame too if you like, that's not a problem.

 

[Justanothergeordie]

I'm a bit worried about attaching it to the house

 

[hansPulesh]

doesn't need to be attached, the frame can just sit close enough to the house though. If you want, there's no reason why you can attach it to the house either though.

 

[Justanothergeordie]

Is there anything I should put on the frame or the house below the deck line if water's going to collect there? Other than the DPC you mentioned?

 

[hansPulesh]

Not really, just try to keep the legs of the frame as high as possible - I normally use cheaper flagstones for this to make sure that any water doesn't collect around them.

Also, make sure that you treat any piece of wood that you cut at it's cut point to make it water resistant.

Have you thought about deck lights at all? now's the time to plan those too if you want them.

 

[Justanothergeordie]

Probably okay for lighting as we already have some outdoor ones installed. Did you think the flags and tree were okay?

 

[hansPulesh]

Trees and shrubs are a difficult call to be honest. They can seem fine but in 5 years they may cause parts of your deck frame to rise up. You have ample access though and so I wouldn't worry too much about that. What you can quite easily do is if you notice any part of your deck rising up, lift out a few deck boards where the problem is and shave a bit of the leg off at the bottom and reattach it to the deck frame - hence lowering the frame's level again.

Another thing about deck boards, when attaching them to the frame below, don't cut them to size and then fit them. Leave the ends longer than they need to be and once all the deck is complete, use a circular saw, start at one side of the deck and cut all the excess lengths down in one go. You'll get a much nicer finish.

 

[Justanothergeordie]

Great tips, thanks for the help!

 

[hansPulesh]

No problem, take pics once done and put them up on here.