Slightly unusual iroko decking

So this decking was all part of the same garden as the last blog on my profile where I wrote about the green oak pergola we also built. This design was unusual as the decking was to be sat onto a rendered wall, and was also bean shaped which caused us a bit of head scratching when thinking of the best method of installation. The first job was to remove everything in the garden that was being replaced, which included the old decking that turned out to be a few years past it’s expiration date. Once that was done the footings and block wall went up which then gave us the definitive height that we were now working to. Then the decking frame could go inside of the blocks, at the same height.

The decking frame was built using the standard treated softwood 6”x2” timbers, with 4” posts concreted into the ground to support the frame, and we also bolted it to the block wall where it touched. We always put weed membrane underneath so that no weeds can grow up through the gaps in the boards which I see quite frequently, then it was time for the boards to go down.

Iroko is a very hard wood with some brilliant variation in colours and grain patterns between each board. The process of installing these boards is a very slow one as each board needed approximately 16 screws depending on the length, and each one needed pre drilling and countersinking. This is not something that needs doing with a softwood deck, as the screws can be driven straight through. We left each board much longer than they needed to be as we installed them, so we could cut the shape of the deck at the end in one very long but single process.

Then it was onto the scary phase. To mark out and cut the shape. It took a few attempts to mark the desired shape as it needed a minor adjustment here and there, but we were finally happy enough to go ahead and start the cut. We used a standard jigsaw with a coarse hardwood blade. Finally, well over an hour and several blades later, we had it cut. A few other fairly big jobs were left on the project such as the already spoken about oak pergola, along with the rendering of the block wall, and all of the paving which included a set of steps onto the deck, and then the job was complete. Quite a change for the client in just a little over 2 weeks.

One thing to remember if you are going to use hardwood for a deck, is that it can scratch. Softwood can scratch also, but it usually swells back out and is almost invisible. With all hardwoods the scratches will stay, and be can be a bit of an eye sore. It is possible to sand the hardwood back to refurbish it, but if you plan on doing so, remember to sink the screw heads enough into the wood to be able to do this at a later date.

As usual any questions feel free to ask.

Thanks for your interest.