A different approach to timber decking

How the Lifeplus Decking approach is different

Timber decks are generally a significant investment and are invariably built to enhance in some way the lifestyle of its owners, often as an outdoor living or entertainment area as an integral part of a new home design or added to an existing home.

However, traditional decking projects, unfortunately, often do not deliver on the owner’s expectations of lifestyle enhancement because of poor performance. Poor performance can originate broadly from two sources. The first is from a low cost focus and the second is from the sourcing of inadequate quality materials and/or use of poor construction practices through lack of knowledge of its short or long term impact.

In the first case, the sourcing of all the elements of the project is based on the lowest price, including the decking timber, the subframe timber, the project construction (including subframe construction and installation of the decking timber) and initial and on-going application of protective finishes.

In the second case, an owner may be prepared to pay for a quality project and may even believe that it has been delivered but less than suitable quality materials and less than ideal construction practices may have been incorporated because of the competitive demands of the industry or lack of appreciation of the short or long term impact of such decisions.

In many cases, again unfortunately, a decking project may combine some elements of good and not so good materials and construction practices so that the purchaser pays close to the expected amount for quality but may still receive a project which provides disappointing performance eg good quality decking and subframe timbers may be purchased but the decking may then be fixed with T-nails which do not provide sufficient hold-down and deteriorate prematurely or the deck may be hand-nailed with the nails in-line so that they split the joists - these are not unusual situations.

Unfortunately, as a result of either of these 2 approaches, timber decks often do not deliver on the lifestyle enhancing expectations, suffering from performance issues and reduced enjoyment by users of the deck. These performance issues can take many forms, including:

• “short term performance issues” such as distortion, excessive swelling and shrinking or nails working out or failing, or
• “longer-term performance issues” such as premature deterioration of the substructure, fixings or decking material itself and even failure if the deterioration is not recognised.

LifePlus Decking, in comparison, has a focus on delivering decking projects which perform well over a long life and are as great a source of enjoyment to the owners as they anticipate it will be.