Anyone know how to prepare the ground for decking??

Soldato
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Bucks and Edinburgh
Currently doing the back garden and was going to lay a paved patio. The area is 3.3m x 7m but decided as the garden is only really accessable via an alley which is stepped to get to, dragging several tons of hardcore, sand, cement and flag stones was going to be back breaking.

So Ive decided decking is probably going to be easiest. So whats the best and easiest way to prepare the ground to lay the joists on ?? Ive read you can lay large paving slabs and rest the joists on them but have read on other sites thats a bad idea :confused: Its going to be laid on compacted ground which has had the turf removed. Dont really want to go the dig holes, fill with hardcore and concrete route if I dont have to.

Cheers All
 
I dont know much about decking but have laid many sheds down, (not quite the same :)) it is always best to lay hardcore then concrete if you can at very least put hardcore and slabs down, if you dont put hardcore down youll find the ground compacts unevenly and the decking may deform.
hope I have been some help :p
 
TheCrow said:
maby...

first 4 hits look quite good

Thanks, Ive looked at those already and they seem to be for the elevated sort or just contradict each other. I like the idea of resting the joists on large paving slabs as it makes things easy but some sites say you shoudnt use that method.
 
What my neighbour did was:

Remove the top layer of ground / earth / grass up to a few inches.
Put down blue plastic sheeting
Put layer of sand
Made decking
Put decking in place
Beer.
 
I think paving slabs should be fine, thats also what ill be doing when i lay my mum decking for her. I might put some hardcore under the slabs to be on the safe side though.

Mark
 
I'd strongly suggest putting down a layer of anti-weed membrane, It'll let water down but stop weeds from coming up.
 
Aye was going to use the ground sheeting first. Was going to use large paving slabs as the footprint of the slabs is larger than breeze blocks so it spreads the load on the ground more to prevent movement. Well that was the idea. :)
 
i've just done my decking project and i simply cleared the area of weeds/etc, put a ground control sheet down and then plan your decking, the most important bit now is your decking supports, you will need these to ensure your decking is level, so what i did was on every cross beam, in either 1 or 2 places i dug a hole around 6 - 12" deep, using the 6x2 supports, i screwed them to the cross beams into the holes then cemented them in ensuring my frame was level. This is essential, especially on larger areas of decking to avoid sinking in the future etc. Another thing to mention, wherever you saw the decking strips, you need to treat the ends with a rot treatment to avoid it rotting in the future too.

Good luck and look forward to seeing the results :)
 
I think that crossbeams lying ontop of concrete slabs would be bad because the water won't drain and the wood is going to rot.

If it was me I'd take out the turf, lay a membrane and then sink in support posts and concrete them in.
As wes said treat the ends of those posts (stand them in a bucket full of creosote or similar for a few days).
Then build the crossbeams off the posts that you've just concreted in.
AFAIK the membrane has a long lifespan and should stop anything growing up through whilst allowing water to soak down.
 
When we built the decking here, 10 years ago now we built the frame mad e up of joists and crossbeams and attached 9 posts to it which each sit on top of a piece of slab which is sat on cement. It's still as stable as we built it, it's about 3m square. A post at each corner and one in the middle of each side and one in the middle.
 
VIRII said:
I think that crossbeams lying ontop of concrete slabs would be bad because the water won't drain and the wood is going to rot.

If it was me I'd take out the turf, lay a membrane and then sink in support posts and concrete them in.

Thats a method that is used quite often for raised decks which ensures good strength, dig a hole, partially fill with hardcore, put a slab in the bottom of the hole and put a post in it and concrete in.

In my mind the water would potentially collect round the concreteted area round the post and soak into the post much like the use of slabs, unless of course you sink the post below the earth line but then the post would be in contact with potential damp earth all the time. :confused:
 
If I was going to do any decking, I would ensure that there was sufficient grip for my feet to prevent slipping when I swung the crucial punch :p

Stan :)
 
Bigstan said:
If I was going to do any decking, I would ensure that there was sufficient grip for my feet to prevent slipping when I swung the crucial punch :p

Stan :)

Damm you Stan.
I wanted to make the joke like that :(

:p
 
Bear said:
Thats a method that is used quite often for raised decks which ensures good strength, dig a hole, partially fill with hardcore, put a slab in the bottom of the hole and put a post in it and concrete in.

In my mind the water would potentially collect round the concreteted area round the post and soak into the post much like the use of slabs, unless of course you sink the post below the earth line but then the post would be in contact with potential damp earth all the time. :confused:

Yup you are supposed to form the concrete into a "molehill" around the post to help it run off away from the post.
 
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