Deck Builders Sydney

About Our Decking Work in Sydney

Owners in Sydney tend to call us at the point where patching has stopped working. By then the underlying issue is usually a substructure that has rotted where it sat in contact with damp ground, and a repair only postpones it.

Ask three contractors for decking in Sydney and you may get three different answers. The difference usually comes down to whether anyone has looked at ground conditions that change completely between one side of the basin and the other before pricing the job.

The honest starting point for decking in Sydney is that you are dealing with coastal salt exposure on one side of the city and cracking clay on the other. Everything we specify follows from working with that rather than pretending it is not there.

Book a free on-site measure on 0492 879 796. You get an itemised written quote for your Sydney property, not a figure over the phone.

Our Process on Sydney Sites

Where the job affects a neighbour, we provide an itemised written quote you can hand over. It resolves more conversations than any amount of goodwill on its own.

Access is planned before pricing. On everything from flat river plain to steep sandstone escarpment in Sydney, whether a truck can get close or whether everything is barrowed is the largest single variable in the program.

• Steps, landings and transitions
• Composite and capped composite boards
• Merbau and spotted gum hardwood decks
• Low level decks over existing slabs
• Pool surround decking
• Hidden fixing and pre-oiled finishes

Common Problems We Are Called To Fix

Most decking enquiries we take in Sydney come from the same place: boards that have cupped and split after years without oil. It is worth understanding why that happens here before deciding what to replace it with.

• Balustrade that no longer meets current height and infill expectations
• A deck that traps moisture underneath because it was built too low without ventilation
• A springy feel from joists spanning further than they should
• Boards that have cupped and split after years without oil

Choosing a Decking Format

Materials, Fixings and Finishes

Where materials have to cope with a very wide range of housing eras with different original boundary types, we upgrade the fixings rather than the visible finish. Fixings are almost always what fails first in this part of the greater Sydney basin.

There is no premium in over-specifying something that was never going to fail. We put the money where Sydney conditions actually attack the job, which is generally at ground level and at the fixings.

• Merbau bleeds tannin for the first few rains, which is why a pre-coat before laying saves staining on light paving below.
• Hidden fixings look better and remove the row of screw heads, but they demand a more accurate substructure.
• Joist spacing is set by the board thickness and the direction of lay, and closing it up is what stops boards feeling springy.
• A deck is only as good as its substructure, and the substructure is what nobody sees when comparing quotes.
• Any deck more than a metre above ground needs balustrade designed to the relevant height and infill rules.

Why Sydney Sites Need a Site-Specific Approach

Drainage is the quiet issue on reactive shale clay in the west, sandstone and sand through the coast and north. Water that cannot get away sits against footings and behind retained faces, and that is where most premature failures in Sydney begin.

Local housing stock is largely the full spread of Sydney housing, from Victorian terrace to new release estate, and that tells you a lot about what is already in the ground: original service runs, old footings and the occasional buried slab nobody remembered.

One thing specific to this part of the greater Sydney basin is councils that each interpret the same state controls slightly differently. It is easy to miss on a first look and expensive to discover once work has started.