Building an Elevated Deck

Over the past year we’ve had many challenges but perhaps none quite so in-depth as the three and a half meter high deck we built in the summer. Looking into the garden, with the finished article in place, you wouldn’t believe the work that went into assembling such a deck – you probably wouldn’t even notice that the garden descends by three and a half meters below it. So how do you design and build a garden structure like this hard-wood decking? well, you’d start with a solid foundation!

Once the hilside was cleared of the trees and shrubs that lined it we began to dig large level pits back into the slope. As it would be foolish to drive a digger on such an incline we had to do this pain-stakingly by hand. We filled the pits with concrete and, to keep the damp away from the decking subframe, the design called for us to build raised plinths for the posts to be bolted down on top of.

 

The posts of the frame were made up of three lengths of 6x2inch timber bolted together, this made it so that we could slot the beams into the posts and screw them in more securely. The placement of the posts had to be acurate to the milimeter to match the design, which was no easy feat! but now that they’d been bolted to the concrete we could finally start building the frame. Once the beams were in place we put joist in perpendicular at regular intervals.

Building a deck frame whilst 3.4m above the ground is nerve-racking to say the least so we were well pleased when it came to installing the yellow balau hardwood boards. We put a picture frame around the outside of the deck to enclose the area and filled that frame with boards. Each screw hole had to be pre-drilled which was tedious but paid off in the end as not one board cracked and the dck looked just incredible.

To finish the design we added a ballustrade for safety and planted some trees for screening. This build was rewarding for us through and through and the final result is stunning. Where there once was and unusable and overgrown 3.5m drop there now sits a magnificent social area perfect for summer barbecues and lounging. This design has been one of our favourite to produce and get our heads around. We love a challenge and this certainly was one!

If you have a space in your garden that you thought was good for nothing then you should contact us now and we can surely come up with a solution.