Decking

When thinking about renovations and up-scaling your street appeal, one of the best ways to capitalize on outdoor living and gain some attention; is a deck. There are so many reasons why a homeowner may want to add a deck onto their home, some of these reasons can vary from wanting an extension of current living spaces right through to needing a link to other living areas or garden spaces. Each homeowner’s reason for wanting an outdoor upgrade is as unique as the design for the space and the size, shape, dimensions, and most importantly material.

There is an extensive range of decking options available to NZ homeowners, ranging from a simple option, being pine to more exotic hardwoods, such as Purple Heart. Each option comes with its own pros and cons.

This blog touches on the very surface of some options we offer at Grassroots.

Pine

Pine as a decking material is ideal if you are on a tight budget. They are substantial value and readily available for supply in our area. Pine will shrink and expand with the seasons, which means that the deck area, especially our built decks, must be properly prepped to factor in vapour barrier, specifically for the longevity of a pine deck; unfortunately, they do have a much shorter life span than hardwoods. Price being the major draw point for this wood.

Hardwood

Hardwood is a much more vast and extensive area to speak upon, for the purpose of this blog we have broken the option into our top five preferred hardwoods, most suitable for Taranaki and its environmental differences.

Kwila: This option is usually the most cost effective of the hardwood decking and availability is generally good. Usage of this material is more likely to ensure the area looks nice and fitting as there is minimal movement; shrinkage or expansion; it will also weather to a silver hue over time. One issue with Kwila is that it is known to bleed on install and can stain areas surrounding the deck.

Garapa: This is one of our favourite timbers to work with, but we seldom get to utilise it as it is becoming increasingly difficult to source, which in turn is causing price increases. However, much like Kwila, it will keep the area looking tight with minimal movement, unlike Kwila it will keep its pale identifying tone even over time.   

Vitex: This timber will season a pale colour similar to Garapa. It is an easy, workable timber with all the positive characteristics of any good hardwood. Costs associated with sourcing Vitex, this timber becomes a mid to high end timber to use for decking, but well worth it for the finished result.

Purple Heart: This one is a highly desired timber to use for decking and is our most preferred timber to use for feature decks. A very dense hardwood, with a bright loud colour when first installed; it can be costly but benefits of using Purple Heart are optimal. Over time the identifying purple will fade out to become a charismatic pink and eventually a unique silver. Watching the changes in the character of this timber may almost be worth the price alone.

Mahogany: aka Fijian Mahogany; this timber is readily available to most parts of New Zealand, the more that is purchased at one time the more reasonable the cost becomes. This Hardwood has gorgeous colourful characteristics and is simple and easy to work with and maintain.

Like all aspects of a house upgrade, a deck needs to have much care and consideration put into the planning and budgeting; due care is definitely needed in the planning progress.

Most decks being built from scratch will start at around $300 per square metre and only go up from there depending on size, scale, height and of course material.

Therefore, we encourage all our clients to consider their outdoor upgrade an investment into their homes portfolio as apposed to a quick minute decision for something pretty that probably will not stand the test of time.

Whether you’re after a simple pine deck to extend your outdoor usage or you are wanting a expansive and impressive purple heart feature deck, we here at Grassroots have you covered and would love to have a chat with you about what we can do to make your outdoors your favourite space!!!