Garden Decking - Advice Please

[Uncle John]

Looking at getting the rear garden decked.

Have had the men around & the quote has arrived.

I’ve no experience of decking & was looking at composite for ease of maintenance. It’s come in 25% more expensive than soft wood.

Is it really, worth the extra? Is it minimal on maintenance? Assume soft wood needs re-staining every season & gets slippery.

Note that the garden doesn’t get much sun this time of year so things do go green quite quickly.

[Uncle John]

Thanks all for your replies.

Cost of paving would be prohibitive so it looks like composite is the winner, just to make sure it's from a reputable brand.

[Uncle John]

V8mate said:

Chris Type R said:

V8mate said:

Only 25% more for composite? Last time I looked it was twice the price of wood.

So the warnings^ re quality are particularly poignant.

I suspect it's 25% on top of the total bill, which will almost certainly include a large portion of labour/profit - i.e. the material cost might be 75% higher.

It's probably composite deck boards only, and not the bearers.

It might also be the boards which are not solid i.e. hollow inside.

All fair comment.

You would be correct Chris.

I know paving would be the best but it's a large area, and paving would be more than I'm willing to pay, I've got other projects I want to get done this year.

At our last house we had half the area and had it paved at around 6k, and this was in 2009.

[Uncle John]

Quick update.

Have enquired about Indian sandstone paving just to make sure, and much to my surprise, quote isn't much more at all. Seems he can get better deals on the stone.

So, in the interest of longevity, and as we are not moving again, I'll be going with the paving option.

Thanks all for your input.