Background
I lived in Dublin for the majority of the years between 1991 and 2010 eventually buying a house in an area known as Rathmines. It was a large rambling house that required a lot of care and maintenance. After a major refurbishment the garden and outside areas needed to be tidied up.
There was some decking in a small courtyard at the rear of the main house and i installed some additional decking at the rear of the extension at the back of the house. I would have preferred to have some grass to add colour and texture but there were lots of over hanging trees in neighbours gardens that provided too much shade which would have resulted in poor growth and it would be unlikely that it would survive.
The garden was covered with gravel stones by a previous owner. I kept these and added the decking section at the French Doors.
There was some decking in a small courtyard at the rear of the main house and i installed some additional decking at the rear of the extension at the back of the house. I would have preferred to have some grass to add colour and texture but there were lots of over hanging trees in neighbours gardens that provided too much shade which would have resulted in poor growth and it would be unlikely that it would survive.
The garden was covered with gravel stones by a previous owner. I kept these and added the decking section at the French Doors.
The decking was made from a kit of parts available at B&Q DIY/Garden centres.
The decking consists of 600mm x 600mm decking tiles which sit on a frame made from standard edge pieces and cross bracing spars.
When originally installed the decking took a weekend to install. This included leveling the ground and gravel, laying slabs at the corners and mid points to support the frame, cutting and assembling the frame and laying the tiles in place.
In this picture the frame, cross members and supporting slabs can be seen below the area where one of the tiles has been lifted.
Originally only one frame of 4 x 4 tiles was laid.
This seemed sufficient but as soon as it was completed i decided to install a second one to make the whole area much more usable.
Leaving the gravel section at the end of the decking frame looked quite odd and unfinished.
When the second frame was completed the two sections were joined together using coach screws which were hidden below the decking tiles.
Securing the two sections together ensured that they did not move apart creating a gap between them.
This picture shows the decking when viewed from the French Windows.
Although the decking tiles look to have been stained different colours they have in fact only been treated with decking oil.
The different colours of the alternate tiles is due to a trick of the light but it does create a quite pleasing effect.
This picture shows the decking after it had been refurbished and re-oiled.
It was a pleasant late summer evening. The tiles lying just outside the French Doors were drying after being oiled.
These were not part of the deck frame but linked the decking to the garden shed located in the corner of the garden.
This picture shows the decking located in the courtyard at the back of the main house.
I was renovating the rear of the house preparing it for painting and had spent a number of weekends preparing the walls, hence the very patchy white walls.
I re-oiled the decking in sections allowing each to dry before moving on to the next one. Dublin's weather, even in summer did not allow damp wood to dry out fully before it got wet again so i devised a method of drying particularly wet wood before re-oiling it.
The black 'tubing' in the foreground is in fact upturned roof guttering intended for drainage. This was left over from the refurbishment of the house. I placed these over sections of decking that took a long time to fully dry out and then put a hair dryer on a warm setting at one end blowing warm air under the guttering. This created a very localised warm area over the wood which dried it out in less than a couple of hours in the worst cases. It was then immediately oiled and the guttering put back in place to protect the treated surface from any rain that may occur within the next 24 hours.