Deck Building. Choosing the Decking Material

Wow that last post was really popular, you guys must really like stairs! Well now that all the framing is completed it's time to select and lay the timber on the frame. If you hadn't picked this up in earlier posts, this is deck number four for me, and it will also be the fourth different type of deck fastener I'll be trying. Here's a bit of history.

1. The eighties. Flock of Seagulls was still popular, and I started deck number one. The timber used was 70 x 19 treated pine fastened with galvanised nails and a hammer. The old fashioned way! Great workout for the biceps. Digital cameras didn't exist yet sorry.
2. The nineties. Tal Bachman was singing She's So High, and deck number two below was built using 70 x 19 Merbau fastened with a Paslode nail gun. Forgive me I knew not how. The result was pleasing though as you can see below.

Deck Number 2

3. The late noughties. Lady Gaga was breaking out and most recently on this house I built deck number 3, the side deck using 90 x 19 Merbau fastened with Deck-Max Original biscuits which you've already read about. 

For the next deck I wanted to keep the "nail free" look of deck number 3 but didn't want the hassle and time it takes to use a biscuit cutter solution like Deck-Max Original. I investigated a few options available in Australia.

• Archideck. Very similar to Deck-Max Original. Too time consuming for such a large deck
• Camo Fasteners. Relies on a template tool to pilot the drilling of the screws into the edge of the decking timber. Again it seemed too time consuming for a large deck
• Deck-Max. Although the last deck seemed to take FOREVER to complete using Deck-Max Original biscuits, they so have another product called the Deck-Max Pro biscuit. This relies on purchasing their pre-engineered profiled decking timber with a groove cut into the sides of each board to accept the Pro biscuit. This removes the time-consuming process of cutting the biscuit slots into the timber
• Deck Master. This is an interesting product. It uses a combined approach with pre-engineered timber like Deck-Max, fixed using a different type of Tiger Claw fastener (called a TC-G, for grooved boards, as opposed to the one I mentioned above which is the TC-1), along with Deck Bone "end matched" but joiners, a "scrail" gun to fix down the fittings, and rubber mats to run along the top of the joists under the decking.

So for me it came down to two choices; Deck-Max Pro or Deck Master, as most of the others were going to be too time consuming for a deck this big. Not saying that they don't have their place, but for a substantial deck like this one they're just not suitable. 

After researching into it and talking with both companies, as well as some personal recommendations, I selected the Deck Master system. This was for a couple of reasons:

• Cost - Deck-Max Pro was going to cost nearly $1000 more in materials than Deck Master
• End Matching - End Matching allows you to join boards without needing to meet over the top of a joist which saves a heap by reducing scrap offcuts. However to get the end matching for Deck-Max Pro I needed to purchase their 110mm boards, and I had my mind set on 90mm to match the side deck
• Speed - Speaking with the suppliers, and just looking at the videos, I could tell that Deck Master was going to be quicker than Deck-Max Pro to install. However I was going to need to buy a compressor, but you can never have too many tools!
• Joist Protection - Deck Master includes rubber joist flashing to protect the joists, which fits in nicely with the Protectadeck that I have put across the bearers
• Finish - All the timber arrives pre-coated with Feast Watson decking oil

The key to Deck Master system is the Tiger Claw fastener and the Scrail Gun shown below. The combination of these two things make it incredibly quick to lay decking.

DeckMaster Scrail Gun (image courtesy DeckMaster)

A Tiger Claw fastener, grrrr  (image courtesy DeckMaster)

So having made my mind up I put the order in with my local supplier Greenhill Timbers, and a week later everything turned up on site having been trucked down to Victoria from Queensland. The kit supplies everything you need to complete the project with all the joiners, fasteners, flashing, screws, connectors, drill bits, timber etc. The supplied scrail gun even comes with safety glasses!

Delivery Day! All the way from Queensland via Thomastown

DeckMaster Profiled Timber (image courtesy DeckMaster)

Now let's talk timber, as the timber they supplied was absolutely beautiful! I have never seen more straighter lengths of in my life, all finished and coated with F&W ready to be laid. The lengths supplied were spot on too, with a good selection of longs, mediums and not too many shorts. This was seriously good stuff. The timber is listed as 90x19 however owing to the profiling process to cut the grooves it's a little slimmer by a few mm on each side, but not that you'd notice.

The Scrail gun is the key to this system. Once the rubber flashing is laid (I just laid it down with galvanised staples) you lay the decking board down, then load the TC-G joiner into the front of the gun (after filling it with a row of scrails of course), put your foot onto the timber, push the edge of the joiner into the groove of the receiving board while laying the gun flat on top of the joist, and then pull the trigger. 

BANG! Job done. Then you work your way down the length of the board. Fit joiner, position, BANG! Fit joiner, position, BANG! Fit joiner, position, BANG! etc. etc. Less than a minute later you'll have a 6m length fitted. This system is unbelievably super quick.

Positioning and firing the gun (image courtesy DeckMaster)

Before laying any timber I had to first haul it from the driveway around the back. Per below I stacked it on the far side of the frame away from the work face.

A good selection of lengths provided

There was so much timber (70 sqm) I had to split it up and sort. Shorts and mediums I stacked on the frame, and the really long ones around the side of the house as you can see through the gate below.

Not enough room on the coal face, so the longer sticks are around the side of the house

Now I had the tools, the timber, and the know-how, it was time to get to work and start laying some decking. To start with I wanted to "picture frame" the landing, so to achieve this, I HAD TO GO AND BUY SOME TIMBER, LOL!

The timber supplied by Deck Master is profiled with a groove on all sides, so if you have a stair nose to show and you don't want a groove you need to have some standard decking timber. I fixed the frame border down using a combination of Deck-Max Wood Plugs and the TCG Fasteners. For the fastener side I used my biscuit cutter to cut the slots in the board that the Fasteners would hook into. 

Because this is the top step, when I cut and fixed the boards I had to remember to leave a 20mm overhang on the nose of the step, so I could slip the boards underneath on the riser face later. Below shows the border frame fitted.

Framing up the landing

I mitred the corners pretty closely, but it's all under cover so I really wasn't concerned about weathering or lifting of the joins. Below shows the landing at the halfway point.

Half a landing. At least we can walk out the door now!

Earlier I wrote about that Deck Master comes with a rubber underlay to goes along the top of joists, however when I built the frame for the landing I wasn't thinking there was going to be anything but a deck board. The rubber underlay adds another 3mm to the height and I just hadn't allowed for that when I made the frame and that extra 3mm was going to mean that the door wouldn't open! To get around this I had to lay the decking on the landing without the rubber underlay. However there's a trick to this. 

The joiner heights are set based on the rubber underlay being there, so if you don't put it down, the boards don't lay flat and "undulate" with the back side being higher than the front side. I learnt this from experience! I spoke to Deck Master (via Facebook) and they were really helpful. To fix this you need to knock down the front side of the connector 3mm with a hammer, so that the board lays flat when inserted onto the connector. Below shows the completed landing.

Landing has been decked, we can walk out the door!

So lesson learnt, I made pretty quick work of laying the decking on the landing. To finish off the final board I had to rip one to fit, and then fixed it in with screws and the Deck-Max wood plugs. Easy done.

Decking is spreading across the frame

Once the landing was finished (and yes, we could walk out the door now!) I started in on the deck itself. As with any deck, the first board is the most important, and has to be the bestest, straightest, longest one you have, and it has to be laid as straight as possible. All the boards that follow are going to be based on that one board alone. Lucky for me I had a nice straight house to lay it up against!

In the Deck Master system the first board is attached using what are called Top Fix Starter Clips. There's a box of them provided, and they are C shaped clips that are screwed into the top of the joist, and the timber slot fits into the top of the C clip and holds it in place as shown in the Deck Master photo to the right. One box should be enough to do any deck as you only really use them on the first board

Below you can see the first 4 boards laid (OK well 3 and a half anyway) and for the first time ever we can walk across the back yard without joist hopping! What an achievement, one small step for me, and a giant leap for the entire family!

The first narrow path across

Now those four boards, once I had fixed the starter clips in place, took me less than 10 minutes on my own to lay down. It's amazingly quick to use. 

When it comes to butt joins, I have never seen tighter joins. The DeckBone clips come in pairs and all you do is fix one clip on the inside, put in the next butt joined piece of timber, give it a bit of a love tap on the end with a rubber mallet, then fit the outside clip. Job done. No need for offcuts, no need to line up over a joist. 

As you can see below the joints created are super-tight and virtually seamless.

Nice tight joins

So now where on our way and the decking is going down fast! 
Next post we'll look at how it progresses with some of the trickier bits and pieces.