DECK the halls with...a white Christmas!

As promised in this blog I will be starting my DECK project however the weather here in England has been unusually cold and snowy for December, in fact the coldest December since records began!

I am pleased to say that our audience has grown recently with visits from USA, Canada and Vietnam...WOW!!
Now I know that Canada and USA can have exceptionally cold winters so our predicted -9 / -14 for Christmas eve might not be that cold for you but here it is unheard of so to wish you all a Merry Christmas and New Year here are a few 'winter' photos taken in the garden this week....

Snowy view from bedroom window...

My friendly Robin who is keeping guard of the feeders in this weather!...

The blackbirds have been stripping the berries from the hawthorn and pyracanthas...

Ah that Magpie again...I think the photos are slowly improving??...(for you photographers this is a hand-held shot at about 30mtrs using a 70mm-200mm zoom lens, aperture f2.8, ISO 320)

Finally the snow covered garden...


All hands on deck....

As promised here comes the gardening bit...I discussed the layout of the garden and raised patio areas in my last blog but will just remind you that the idea behind the deck was to bring it out level to the top of the pond and maximise the open views at the bottom of the garden. As it was to be built on two existing stone patios at different levels it required construction partly on batons fixed directly onto the slabs and part construction on a frame built on stilts. In my previous house I built a raised deck on stilts so felt comfortable with taking this build on but knew that I had to get the levels perfect so it would sit level with the pond and not look odd. As usual I will use photos to demonstrate the build of this feature...

20mm thick batons were fixed to the solid patio slabs and then deck boards screwed down onto these batons. 20mm were used as they allow air flow between the deck boards and concrete and should discourage unwanted residents from making home under the boards!! Note the post shoes were also bolted down to the slabs at this stage so that the deck boards could be cut around them so that less of the shoes are exposed making for a neater job.

I used 4meter long lengths of deck board, which had been hanging around a timber yard for a year or two. This worked out much cheaper and also gives more time for the boards to mature and leach out any unwanted chemicals. When building so near to a pond chemicals and preservatives can be a potential nightmare so where possible use untreated boards or as I have found well 'matured' boards! You can now also see the meter high drop off which will require a frame on stilts!

I needed all the help I could get for this project....but had to settle for some moral support from my best mate!

 Here is the frame under construction. I built it on 4" posts that were held in place by more post shoes bolted into the concrete floor again. Please note that I even used a spirit level!....however don't forget that you will need a slight drop on the deck to allow rain water to drain away. I also opted to run the boards parallel to the pond to reduce the risk of chemicals leaching out of the boards and straight into the pond!...


This deck is a big project and too much to put into one blog so I will leave it at this point and continue this build in my next blog when we will be getting all the boards on, sorting out steps and erecting posts and hand rails...

Once again I have many detailed pictures of all of my builds so please leave a message if you want to see further pictures or ask about specific points.

See you next time... **AND A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL**