Browse Forums Outdoor Living 1 Mar 23, 2012 2:05 pm Hi guys! I've been reading this forum for the past 2+ years while our home in Piara Waters, WA is being built for tips, tricks, hints, ideas and stuff. You guys are awesome! Now that its done and all furnished, we've only got the back landscaping to do. We're on a tight budget and my DIY skills are novice. Plus, I don't own any power tools - not even a simple drill, I've had to borrow to hang pictures on my wall. I'm keen to pick up some DIY skills, but not at the expense of a crappy job on my house! So here is my idea: Ikea decking (www.ikea.com/aa/en/catalog/products/60174219/) on sand and put up a shade sail to cover the area. The area I wanna deck is about 13x4m of flattened sand (not compacted yet) with a large concrete soakwell underneath. The reason why I wanna do this is because we don't like natural grass. The Mrs doesn't like watering it, I don't like maintaining it. We would do synthetic turf but its is expensive, bad for the environment and hot. Ikea's decking is made of renewable raw material, just that little bit better than synthetic turf. Paving would be hot in summer and still more expensive compared to ikea's decking solution since I can't DIY that. Normal timber decking is way too expensive for us. Anyway, here's my plan. Please tell me if I'm crazy. 1. Lay road base/crushed limestone and compact the area 2. Lay weed mat so weeds don't grow under 3. Lay Ikea decking 4. Put up shade sail (the posts will be outside of the decked area) 5. Enjoy A few questions before I proceed: 1. Am I totally crazy? Is that idea just plain stupid? Do I even know what I'm doing? 2. Is road base/crushed limestone needed? A friend of mine said that compacted sand might be sufficient. I don't quite believe that. 3. Do I need to worry about drainage? If I do the road base, is it porous? Or do I have to make some drainage that goes to the soakwell? 4. I've heard of guys using Ikea decking on concrete, has anyone had experience doing this kind of a thing? Any advice or help that anyone has to offer is greatly appreciated! Re: Ikea decking on sand? 2Mar 28, 2012 12:34 am Ok seems like no one is gonna answer my questions, but I've found some answers if anyone else is interested. 1. Drainage is a problem as long as it is compacted. I would have to add an inlet to the soakwell over the compacted road base. 2. Another possibility is to use a porous material or uncompacted base - like crushed brick or cracked gravel. It seems to be stable enough and that would solve drainage, but theres still another problem: 3. White ants! This whole thing isn't such a good idea because it would be much more susceptible to white ants. Modular decking sitting directly on the ground sounds sweet to white ants it seems. I'm looking for other solutions... anyone have any ideas? Re: Ikea decking on sand? 3Mar 31, 2012 3:41 pm Hi, not sure about the Ikea decking, Ive never used or heard of it before sorry. What about exposed aggregate? My husband is about to do our front path and back patio bit himself. He is a very handy fella but even to me it doesnt sound too hard. He has done a bit of concreting before and will be working with a guy that has done a bit too but if you have someone to help before the concrete goes off it might be an option. After framing then pouring and screeding the concrete you apply a concrete retarder which stops the top 1/8th of an inch from setting and then the next day hit it with a pressure washer and then add a sealer. Maybe an option you could do?? Re: Ikea decking on sand? 4Apr 02, 2012 12:32 pm Thanks for the reply! Sounds like a great idea but I really haven't got the confidence to do it well myself and get it right! I really admire people like your husband who have hands for DIY. I never did much DIY stuff around the house growing up, there was never any need to, so now I'm finding it hard to pick these things up. I'm trying to learn now, but baby steps. Concreting sounds pretty alright. Probably worth a try, but first I gotta find a few mates who have the experience to do it with me. By myself, I'll probably make a huge mess of things and get a clobbering from my wife or do a bad job and find that my house is breaking down 2 years from now. Chances are, I just end up saving up and spending it on a good job done by an experienced tradie rather than ruin it myself. Sometimes I think that its DIY idiots like myself that keep the economy moving and give jobs to our skillful tradies. Hi, as per the subject. Does anyone have any recommendations for the best value decking oil (Bunning is close to where I live) for a treated pine deck? Thanks 0 10971 I'm putting a new floor in my kitchen, slate flagging on a standard concrete slab. I have allowed for a bed thickness of up to 20mm to accommodate the different… 0 17539 2 4350 |