Beautiful Choose Beauty and Durability in Wood Porch Decking

When it comes to the options available for material to construct wood porch decking, there are a variety of good looking wood choices depending upon your design preference.

Redwood is among the best known and most popular woods available, with a natural beauty and a resistance to decay and insect infestation. If you purchase grades that include sapwood, however, termites can be problematic. Clear Heart Redwood with no knots is the most expensive grade available but has the least amount of drawbacks.

Those who prefer a handsome looking blond deck can consider Cypress wood with smaller knots than most grades of redwood. It accepts colored stains easily, but like redwood, tends to be at the premium price range. Imo cypress is ranked the most resistant to decay.

Western red cedar is an easy lightweight wood to work with, colorful and good looking, but can rot, decay or become insect infested in as little as seven or eight years. If your deck does not ventilate or is subject to the accumulation of leaves drifting in from nearby trees, take a pass on using cedar. Cedar does not hold up well for low to the ground deck projects as ground moisture causes quick deterioration.

Take a pass on using treated yellow pine wood, which is not stable enough to create durable wood porch decking and has a habit of cracking and splintering. Douglas fir is usable for creating wood porch decking, but sap leaking from the boards create problems.

For a hardwood that combines beauty and durability with none of the drawbacks associated with domestic woods, imported Ipe deck wood, also called Brazilian walnut, is an excellent value for decking projects.

Ipe is prized for its extreme hardness, actually five times harder than treated yellow pine. Grown in South America, Ipe is impervious to decay, rot and termite infestation, and is slip resistant even when wet.

Ipe deck wood is fire resistant, an important safety feature especially in fire-prone states, and when left untreated, will last four decades or more. If maintained with deck oil, wood porch decking using Ipe has been known to stand up to the elements for 100 years. Its rich brown color accented with golden hues makes a deck that offers elegant beauty without the hassle of high maintenance.

Elegant Great Home Decking Ideas

With home modernization increasingly an ever more popular hobby for folks, its not surprising that the idea of improving your garden with a great looking, and usable wooden deck has turned massively popular in recent years.

Many decks are put together by DIY enthusiasts, and regularly results in decks that are devoid of muchstyle, and often are contradictory to the style of the house as far as its general look is concerned. This does not need to be the case however, with a bit of careful planning and and eye on the details its entirely possible for the do-it-yourself enthusiast to design and construct a unique, beautiful and stylish garden deck without the need to employ the pros.

Here we look at what you can do as a DIY fan to construct a better looking deck for your home, and give you some ideas on how you can come up with your own decking ideas and plans.

First of all, you need to consider what your garden deck will be constructed of. While in most cases the main material will be wood, that's not the only choice, and if it is wood the type of wood is a decision that can greatly add to the success of deck in your garden, and taking a bit of time to choose the right material will pay big dividends once the project is finished and you relax on your nice new decking.

Other materials that can be selected for decking include aluminium, that though a much more expensive option, and a harder job to implement for the do-it-yourself fan, can occasionally add a great sense of style to the right type of home, in most cases though you will be using wood for your decking and woods such as Cedar make a great choice for decking, as does Redwood.

To get an even more plush feel you may think about Mahogany, which while often more pricey than many other choices, can certainly add character to a property when styled and built with some forethought and consideration.

Careful thought must be put into the planning of your decking, having ideas for designs which will not compliment the style of your house will not result in a good and complimentary end result. You should attempt to design and build the deck to match your home, and not rush ahead with the handsaw and nails and end up with something that looks wrong, or worse lowers the value of your home.

The same applies if your home has maybe a Victorian look with lots of fine and intricate 1features, then an elaborate and more complex decking is obviously best, providing the detailed features match that of the style of your property.

Obviously in the end how you style and construct your deck is up to you, but by making sure you match the style of your decking with the look of your home, you will have a final product that compliments your property, raises its value, and is a pleasure to spend your time on, and that, after-all, is the whole idea.