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  • I am just about to put my basic decking together. Will anyone tell me I don't need to bother treating (either the frame, or the boards, or ideally both) with anything as pressurized timber should be fine? I assume the advice is apply 'deck protect' or similar to everything liberally. But obviously I'd rather not if I can get away with it....

  • I would at least treat the cut ends of timber

  • My previous deck I did nothing when I built it (pressure treated and nothing buried), and it was fine for the 5 years I lived there with a clean and a deck protect application once a year. No signs of it even starting to go bad in that time.

    For the most recent one I went a bit overboard. All timber was bought pressure treated. Posts were soaked overnight in wood preserver and I used post-savers when concreting them in. I painted the tops liberally in wood preserver once I cut them to size. Frame was also liberally painted in wood preserver. Deck itself was painted in deck protect straight away and has just had it's first annual re-coat fairly recently.

    If you need to focus on somewhere think about where water might sit or which areas are more exposed to the elements. Another thing that will shorten the lifespan is putting it together under strain. If some bits don't quite fit and you force them in place, those will be under stress constantly and will likely be where it fails.

  • I’d treat the points of the frame that are either buried or unlikely to dry once damp. Probably overkill if the pressure treated timber was done right, but you can’t really be sure.

    To be fair the deck surface benefits from cleaning and oiling every six months or so, just got to get lucky with the weather.

  • I have just spent the summer dismantling rotten old decking. It had lasted at least 7 years (since we moved into the house) plus however long the previous owner had installed it before then.

    The treated timbers (including the actual deck boards) were mostly still fine. The untreated timbers were all completely rotten and falling apart.

    Your deck boards will surely be already pressure treated and don't need anything more, apart from where you make any cuts

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