Timbers:
Tips for a Foot Friendly Timber Deck
Kiwis and Aussies love an outdoor deck, and often we will use the deck area with bare feet.
However this comes with a downside - most of us have had burnt feet from an over heated deck, and some of us have had splinters or even the odd nail snagging the bottom of our feet.
So, what is the best decking timber to avoid scorched feet? Thinking these issues through up front can certainly help create a foot friendly deck.
Fixings and Splinters
Don’ts
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Don’t nail your deck down. Nails can pop up as wood can shrink and swell depending on the weather – and potentially catch the bottom of your feet.
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Avoid unstable timbers particularly lower grade softwoods, and lower density hardwoods.
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Avoid timbers with a lot of knots or defects, these can become loose over time.
Dos
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Screw your deck down with a quality stainless steel decking screw.
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Choose stable high grade timbers, preferably with a lot of knots on the graded face. Abodo’s Sand Decking and Vulcan Decking are great choices here – choose the Pearl finish to reduce heat absorption.
Heat
Decking is vertically installed, and in many cases fully exposed to the sun’s rays in the peak of summer.
It will absorb a lot of heat – so the colour of the decking, along with the type of material has a huge impact.
Don’ts
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Don’t coat your decking in dark colours, this will increase the heat absorbed.
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Don’t choose heavy dark coloured timbers, particularly if you intend to keep them dark coloured.
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Don’t use wood plastic composite, aluminium or PVC decking – this is generally recognised to hold more heat than wood.
Dos
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Choose timbers with lower thermal conductivity.
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Choose to finish your deck with light colours, like Abodo’s Pearl finish.
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Put samples of your proposed decking out in the sun, and test it in the heat of the day.
