Should I pave or should I deck?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Morning peoples.

I have a dilema that I can’t resolve within myself. Background information that I have considered.

I want to have an ‘entertainment area’ built out the back of my house. It will be covered, but not enclosed (ie. it will have a roof but no walls).

I have two girls (one 10 and one 2) so the area would be used extensively during warmer months and less during cooler months, so I am pretty sure it won’t be a useless addition. I will also be using it to ‘store’ outside type furniture to keep it out of the rain (tables, deck chairs, BBQ, etc).

The backyard is sufficiently sized to have a decent sized area. I am looking at something in other order of around 50-100 square meters (which I think is around 450 to 900 square feet).

There is a step down from the house to the ground in the order of around 6-9 inches, so either method will be sufficiently high to get out without any major step work.

There would be no ‘excavation’ work. ie. The gravel/sand base could be placed directly onto the ground and ‘builtup’ rather than have to ‘dig down’.

Rainfall in Melbourne is not significant, so there is little to no danger of the end result being ‘under water’ at all.

Kids, being kids, will drop their outside things on the floor. One of things I considered if whether small things will drop down between the gaps in a deck and be irretrievably lost (unless I rip up the deck).

The house is double storey brick veneer completed in a rendered and painted finish.

The backyard is empty (we only recently moved in) with the exception of an inground pool. We have not yet had the pool area paved/decked either, so I don’t need to match anything else that’s in the backyard.

Cost (at this point) is not in my consideration. I would prefer to choose style rather than cost initially. I may choose a cheaper option when I get a quote, but I would like your opinions.

Should I use pavers or should I have a deck built?
What is your humble opinion.

2

In Tennessee, USA, my parents went with a deck.
It’s worked well for us.

3

Mmm.

IMO, wood looks better and feels better underfoot. Could you build the deck such that there weren’t gaps between the boards? Or build it high enough so that you could crawl under if need be? The disadvantages to putting the boards so close together is that water can’t just drain through (so you’ll have to be good about waterproofing and keeping puddles off the deck: sounds like that shouldn’t be much of a problem), and it’ll be harder to replace a board that’s warped/damaged without damaging the boards nearby.

I can’t quite tell if you pave are you going for a solid block or more of a mosaic effect? I’d stay away from a solid block of pavement, since if it cracks or otherwise gets damaged it never looks right after being patched. If you do pave, I’d say get lots of nice looking ‘tiles’ (for lack of a better term) and do a design with them. If one of the tiles cracks, simply rip it out and plop down a new one.

(But in the end, I say wood looks better.) :smiley:

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4

Two-foot-square slate ‘tiles’ set on the diagonal.

When I was stationed in Washington, DC, a co-worker rented a room from a woman with a rather elegant town home, and that’s what she had done to the entire back yard (except for the flower beds).

It was beautiful.

5

Just 'cause you asked for it.

Masonry of any style you feel works.

1-Your house is brick veneer?Any pavers,brick,stone,etc.will compliment your house-wood IMO,makes it look too much like an add on-sorta like sticking a utility shed in back.

2-Maintenance-any nasty spills clean up with a hose,I’m talking,grease,acids,really nasty stuff.Normal cleanups again,a hose washes everything off w/out any broomwork.Wood needs to be rewaterproofed/painted/stained,whatever evry couple years or so,just doesn’t weather like masonry.

3-A plus (I did it).You can incorporate a masonry fireplace/grill/oven right on the deck with no fire worries.(think about throwin’a shrimp on the barbie on a wood deck and the barbie tips over.)
4-You want cushion underfoot for a lounge type area? Just use the concrete slab (that you’ll use for the pavers) for a piece-say the closest to the door-and carpet it w/indoor/outdoor.(I’ve done that!)

5-With masonry you could plant a few shrubs,trees,flowers,whatever,on your deck (or in the ground before poring slab) to fit some kind of motif,palms,vines,etc,using a raised bed where you have to in whatever patterns strike your fancy.If your wifes a gardener she’d have some ideas.Wooden deck means sitting them in pots-seems too portable.

6-Warning!This will cost more than wood-but you did say the cost wasn’t the issue.Fortunately I did all my paving myself (except for the slab-I mean enough’s enough)

Disclaimer-as a youngster I worked many moons w/my uncle the bricklayer as summer help.

6

I have decking, and heartily recommend it compared to the paving that was there before. It’s warm and soft underfoot, even at night, which is good if you want to pop out into the yard without having to worry about shoes, and I would have thought perfect for getting out of a pool. The gaps between the boards are too slight for anything to drop between, plus allow enough room for rain to drain through, which is just as well as I live in a wet country. You can leave areas (as I have) cut-out of the decking for planting if you so choose. It isn’t slippery when it does rain, as paving can be, but this is because the timber used on my decking is grooved to help stop lichen (?? something green and slippery, anyway) build-up. It’s treated and should last 15 years or so, even with the amount of rain my area gets.

The only problem as I see it is that decking is now getting so popular, so although it initially will have added value to my property, I can see in becoming unfashionable and dated fast as its popularity grows. However, it’s more than worth it in comfort-value, and looks great too.

7

Potter, this grooved wood intrigues me. I would love to build a deck on the back of my house, but it never gets any sun, and has a tendency to get a bit mossy and slippery. Right now there is a half-arsed brick patio that is all uneven and has weeds growing up through it. And even though I’ve cleaned it thoroughly with bleach and scrubbed it, it still has slippery slimy stuff growing on it.

Can you find out anything about this lumber? Is it available in the US? I wouldn’t want to build a deck in the near future, only to have it become discolored and slimy.

8

I would go with pavers. It will complement the style of your home, and will require less maintenance over time and last longer.

It sounds like you know that you don’t need to set them in concrete - set them in a compacted gravel then compacted sand base, sweep sand between the grooves, and tamp them down again. They’re incredibly strong, and if you have any frost heaves they are very easy to repair.

There are tons of paver styles and colors available, and are available in kits. One tip - don’t try to match the pavers to the brickface of your home. The match won’t be perfect and it will look funny. Choose pavers that complement the brickface - maybe dark tan flagstone. Also, you want pavers that aren’t so dark that they’ll absorb tons of heat, but not so light that they’ll cause glare.

9

http://www.decksusa.com/
http://www.deckweb.com/sites/manu.htm

This was all I could find that didn’t just involve costly hardwoods, although there was better information available on UK products and I couldn’t find a direct link for any grooved timber in the US. Probably just a good idea to call around some local timber merchants to see if they have heard of anything like the following -

The timber my deck’s built of is pressure-treated whitewood which has been preservative-treated, so it shouldn’t split, shrink, warp or rot for 15 or so years, and two years later it’s still looking good with no problems so far. Each slat has small, fairly shallow ‘ribs’ or ‘grooves’ cut in equidistant parallel lines along its length, about 5mm apart. As far as I understand it, this doesn’t cut down so much on the algae (that’s the green slippery stuff I meant) but instead gives more of a grip in case the deck does become a slippery surface. My deck is in a lightly-shaded area with little direct sunlight, so I have had some algae growth, but I have a small, very cheap high-pressure spray which takes care of anything nasty in seconds and keeps it clean. As long as I clean them off once every few months, they stay pretty much slime-free, and any discolouration only shows up when it’s wet, and frankly looks quite pretty - a wooden deck will age in an interesting fashion as it’s a natural material. If it ever gets too icky, I will stain it a darker colour.

Another plus is the ease and speed in which a deck goes down - my yard is by no means huge, but I was still impressed that it took a friend and I only a day to completely finish the project once the timber showed up. And I got to use a nailgun, which was just huge amounts of fun.

10

Guys and Girls.

Thanks for the feedback. There are some things that I hadn’t considered at all in what you’d said, so there’s additional things to think about.

I’m kinda tending towards 2x2 slate or concrete pavers as they seem to be the simplest to maintain. We are on reactive clay, so I’ll need to think deeply about what sort of base we put them on.

No final decision yet, so with all the good advice, I might get a couple of guys out to quote and then make a choice. See what they have to say as well.

Again, thanks for you opinions.