Sydney Decking

Decking for Sydney Properties

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 coastal salt exposure on one side of the city and cracking clay on the other before pricing the job.

The honest starting point for decking in Sydney is that you are dealing with a very wide range of housing eras with different original boundary types. Everything we specify follows from working with that rather than pretending it is not there.

We have been doing decking across Sydney long enough to know which streets throw up surprises. The one that catches people out most often is councils that each interpret the same state controls slightly differently.

Call 0492 879 796 for a free measure in Sydney and we will walk the job with you before anything is priced.

Decking Options in Sydney

How We Approach a Sydney Job

We photograph the site before we start and again at completion. On a Sydney job that record settles most questions about what was there and what changed.

We stage the work so the property stays usable. On a boundary job that means a section is never left open overnight, and on a hard landscape job it means access to the house is maintained.

• Elevated decks with balustrade
• Steps, landings and transitions
• Galvanised and hardwood substructure
• Hidden fixing and pre-oiled finishes
• Composite and capped composite boards
• Merbau and spotted gum hardwood decks

Common Problems We Are Called To Fix

Half the skill in decking around Sydney is knowing what not to disturb. Established gardens, old services and access constraints that vary from a wide western verge to an inner-west rear lane all sit in the way of the obvious approach.

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

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.

Site conditions here run to everything from flat river plain to steep sandstone escarpment. Levels get set out and recorded before anything is ordered, because a change of grade halfway along a run is a design decision, not something to improvise around.

It is worth knowing about ground conditions that change completely between one side of the basin and the other before you commit to a design. It does not rule anything out, but it changes the detail and it belongs in the quote rather than in a conversation on the day.

Materials and Specification

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.

Everything we install carries a manufacturer specification, and we install to it. Warranty claims fail on installation detail far more often than on product defect.

• Any deck more than a metre above ground needs balustrade designed to the relevant height and infill rules.
• Boards need a gap for movement; hardwood shrinks across the width as it dries after installation.
• Merbau bleeds tannin for the first few rains, which is why a pre-coat before laying saves staining on light paving below.
• A deck is only as good as its substructure, and the substructure is what nobody sees when comparing quotes.
• Hidden fixings look better and remove the row of screw heads, but they demand a more accurate substructure.