10 TIPS TO MAKE YOUR DECK LAST LONGER

Deck Permits and setbacks:

The first step of building a deck in Canada or North America should be staying on the right side of the law. Find out where exactly your property line is so you know you meet the necessary setbacks. Depending on how meticulous your municipality or state is, you may need a permit and you may need to show drawings to get one. This is why you should first learn what the local setbacks and permit requirements are so you don’t waste your time coming up with plans and applying for a permit that would be instantly refused. So the first step is to call your local authority or town hall to see what the limitations are and what they will require from you.

Deck Foundations, our top tips for durability:

It is important to understand what will cause your deck to shift so you can build accordingly to avoid that; if you’re in a cold region frost heave being the biggest concern. That is why if you live in an area where you get long cold winters you are normally advised to go 4 or 5 feet below ground level for your base. This will ensure the ground below your post does not freeze and heave.

All of this can be done by an ambitious DIYer; you can either dig a wide hole with a shovel, or rent a gas powered or hand posthole digger. Find out the recommended local depth to get below the frost line and start digging. Drop a Sonotube (cardboard form) in the hole, level it, back fill it, and start mixing concrete.

The one type of soil that may cause you grief and have you revisit your plans would be if you are building on clay. Clay will expand and shrink depending on its moisture content, so it isn’t just about a potential heave over the winter; a deck built on clay can be susceptible to movement depending on rainfall, if it goes from very wet to very dry, or vice versa, anytime during the summer.

If you find bedrock when you dig, that is a good thing because that means your deck won’t be going anywhere. Don’t be tricked into thinking a big rock is bedrock, though if you hit one that seems extremely large and solid, the bottom of it could well be below the frost line in which case it should work fine.

Screw pile foundations for Decks:

If the term is unfamiliar, these are posts that are screwed into the ground to a suitable depth and left there as the structure. It works very well – you just need to be very accurate with placement and ensure that they are level. The top is not as big as a Sonotube so you don’t have much wiggle room if they are installed out of square. Screw piles for decks can be purchased from building supply stores and they will have a hole for putting in a 2×4 for turning leverage. Those work pretty well unless there are a lot of rocks, in which case you are best to call a screw-pile contractor who drive them in with machines.

Floating deck blocks – Advantages & Disadvantages:

This is a fairly safe way to go about things, though keeping them perfectly level may require a bit of maintenance over time if there is any movement. Deck blocks sit directly on the ground so they are a bit more susceptible to movement, though if the ground is pretty consistent where you plan to build, it really shouldn’t move much. The advantage of this is quite a savings in cost at the beginning, and a bit of movement won’t do any harm since it isn’t attached to the house.

Something to remember – the reason we dig down 4 or 5 feet in cold climate zones is so the ground acts as insulation against frost heave. ‘Insulation’ does this as well, so laying a rigid foam insulation board down (foam or stone wool) below and around the deck block may reduce the chances of movement from frost heave. Laying down a bed of 3/4″ clean crushed stone will also act to prevent frost heave, it just can’t have any fines in it because the water has to drain off rather than being retained.

One thing to always bear in mind, especially if building a deck or landscaping a garden in cold climate zones and your home has a basement, is how to prevent spring thaw basement flooding – so be sure to carefully grade surfaces under decks and the deck itself away from your property to direct snow melt away from the home and basement.

The Choice for Deck Surfaces – How to Choose Wood or Composite:

Pressure treated wood is far less toxic than it was in years past, but it’s still not as benign as natural wood. It could in theory last longer, along with mineral-based powder wood treatment, but applying durability measures with any type of wood is the only sure-fire way to extend the life span of deck structures.

Red cedar has natural anti-rot characteristics but comes with a pretty steep price tag, so for example in Eastern Canada, local white cedar from small mills is a much more affordable option. Hemlock (Eastern fir) or Douglas fir are very strong woods, and if you take steps to keep them dry they should last quite a long time also.

Cedar is by far the most common natural untreated decking material, usually 1.25″ thick. It can be left raw and will last a long time, but staining it will give it longer life and keep it from going grey while exposed to weather and UV rays.

Another option here is recycled plastic composite decking boards; they are not wood but rather plastic made to look like wood (we say that loosely because you would definitely be able to tell them apart in a police lineup). One advantage is they are often profiled to make a non-slip surface – a consideration if you’re in a damper zone and your deck is prone to slime or if you have some tree coverage.

Composite deck products are only offered as decking material, there is nothing we’ve found that can be used for building sub-structures. When price comparing you will find its quite a bit more expensive even than cedar, but its lifespan is likely longer than yours.

So there’s even more reason to take some durability measures (which we will get to shortly) so you don’t end up having the structure underneath rot while the decking itself is still quite functional. A galvanized sub-structure is an option worth looking into. We would also recommend using stainless steel screws, even coated deck screws can start to rust after a decade or so.

For maintenance you shouldn’t need to do more than power wash it every few years to remove streaks and mildew. This is also great alternative to wood for building structures that will be continually saturated with water and moisture, such as docks or garden boxes.

Finally, there are tropical woods that are very durable, such as Ipe and Teak, but the market for these woods is causing a pretty big dent in tropical rainforests, which are unfortunately pretty important to all life forms on the planet. So we prefer to see people working with Canadian or American wood sources as there is no shortage of trees here. If you are going for exotic wood you could look into finding some that is FSC certified, which is wood that comes from sustainably managed forests. To see more about choosing wood for framing see here.