Timber Decking:
What To Consider
Timber decking is a natural, sustainable, flexible, attractive and long-lasting construction product gaining real
traction in the UK specification market.
E
mily-Jane Dix, Marketing Manager
for Decking at Marley Eternit gives
an overview of this product and
some of the considerations relating Timber decking has a long history and is
being increasingly specified in the UK as
a means of extending the living area, via
conservatories and summer houses, to the
garden.
Timber, in the words of the UK’s Timber
Trade Federation, is ‘one of the most
flexible, structurally strong and aesthetic
materials available and sits at the
centre of the built environment and
has the lowest embodied carbon of any
commercially available building material’. It is also selected for a variety of other
uses including outdoor dining, balconies
and roof terraces, boardwalks, jetties,
pontoons, and linking areas within schools
and university grounds.
to it.
An increasingly popular use of timber
has been its specification as a decking
solution for a variety of commercial
projects.
52 Landscape & Urban Design
Timber decking is categorised into
four main types: softwood, hardwood,
modified timber and composite, with
each having differing performance
characteristics.
• Softwood is available in a number of
varieties. European Redwood is the
timber of choice for decking products
due to its appearance and strength,
as well as its ability to absorb
preservative treatments to increase
its durability.
• Hardwood is from trees such as
oak, cherry and teak and originates
from areas such as northern Europe,
Africa, South America and Asia. When
selected for decking, hardwood
is resistance to decay and wood-
rotting fungi which makes it an
extremely durable choice.
• Modified timber involves the cell
structure being modified via heat
or chemical treatment to improve
durability which makes it more stable
and resistant to decay. Modified
timbers cannot be structurally graded
so care is needed when specifying for
certain areas such as balconies.
• Composite decking is an innovative
material that imitates timber decking
and has been used in the UK for
about 10 years. It is constructed by
mixing wood fibres and polyurethane,
or by coating wood fibres with a
polymer. It is available in a wide
range of colours.