Iroko decking terrace by Karl Harrison

Iroko decking terrace by Karl Harrison

Iroko FSC is a certified hardwood used for this central London Garden balcony scheme. The subtle contrast between the timber and the steel will soften over time as the timber weathers. The plants will grow, and this will become a beautiful balcony retreat over the next few years.

Iroko hardwood decking

Certified Iroko hardwood decking is beautiful as well it is a practicable decking solution. The decking existed and was refurbished as part of this project. Owatrol cleaners and oils were the perfect solution to bring this timber decking back to life.

Iroko hardwood trellis

The balustrade trellis, side panels and roof arrangement are all made from Certified Iroko. Reversed fixed to conceal the fixings. The sections of timber were calculated to fit with equal gapping across the scheme.

All fixings are Stainless to prevent surface blemishes due to the Tannic Acid reaction in the timber. Tannin is corrosive to ferrous metals. When oak or many hardwoods come into contact with any material with iron content the tannin will cause a reaction. This won’t do any permanent damage to the wood, but it will cause blue-black staining

Balcony planters in brushed stainless

The planters for this scheme were creatively designed to solve a few problems. The terrace contained an upstand which prevented a flat bottomed objects being placed exactly where the planters needed to be. The design was to create a planter that would sit onto this upstand and have a lower section to the front. This lower section was to house the drainage pipework and irrigation. Once fitted the design gave the impression that the planters are floating… No lighting here as that would have been too kitsch

Planters with irrigation Design by Karl Harrison — Planters Design by Karl Harrison

Custom steel fabrication

It has custom steel framing to support the hardwood trellis. Without the steel frame the spans would have been too great to support such small sections of timber. The steel frame had to be designed to work with the existing steel balustrade. The centres were all slightly different on the existing and so the new frame had to match. The measurements had to be to the Millimetre.

Landscaping a small balcony

Access through the bathroom and onto the terrace meant only 2 tradesmen at a time. It was rather awkward, and the guys really enjoyed the challenge. The project was finished on time and exactly as designed. We had a happy client and a happy principal designer.