Repairing a decking disaster

This garden project was initially completed a few years ago by others. The client decided the space needed some professional maintenance; they also wanted to make some additions to the area.

One of the main focal points of this project is the decking. This beautiful hardwood ipe was installed with inadequate gaps in-between boards. This effectively ceased airflow underneath the deck and directly resulted in the substructure rotting. Regardless of this being situated next to a pool, this would have happened in most locations sooner or later. That’s why it’s important to use a professional first-time round.

How to maintain Ipe decking

Fortunately, Ipe is a premium product, so Karl and the team were able to remove the decking, replace the substructure and refit the decking. Now that the substructure had been made safe the next task was cleaning the ipe to remove the green from the surface. Karl chose to do this using Owatrol Prepdeck which easily removed the collection of rubbish on top of the decking. This then needs to get neutralized using Owatrol Net-rol and jet washing.

To finish the decking treatment Karl convinced the client to make all the timber elements grey, Including the balustrade, cedar cladding and Siberian larch garden room. Making all the timber the same colour brings the different elements together and transforms the space into a much more contemporary garden. The team used Owatrol Aquadecks ‘Old wood grey’ to treat all the timber. It’s worth noting the team stripped, cleaned and treated all timber elements the same as the decking. There were some new additions to the decking too; Treating the new decking the same as the old they both look the same.

During this project Karl and the team also cleaned and sealed the natural sandstone paving, fixed the feature wall and more. If you’d like further details on these works head over to the Karl Harrison Landscapes Ltd Case study on their website.