Decking Bunyip: Composite Boards, Hardwood and the Upkeep After

Choose composite decking and you have chosen against the annual coat of oil. That is the trade most people weigh first, and composite board and sleeper material is stocked in Bunyip itself rather than being a special order. Big Fella Landscapes has built in both materials across West Gippsland since 2007, and Kane Dalman holds the Carpentry qualification a deck is built under. Which board suits your block, how high it sits and what it asks of you in five years get settled at the free on-site visit. Ring 0412 881 728.

The Upkeep Each Board Signs You Up For

Every deck asks for something. The difference is how often.

Hardwood wants a wash and a re-oil about once a year to hold its colour, sooner where it sits in shade. Once the finish wears through where people walk, the boards take a light sand before the next coat. Treated pine runs on a stain, much the same rhythm. Leave either a few seasons and it is no longer a re-coat, it is a full sand back.

Composite wants a wash. No oil, no stain, no sanding. It does want the board gaps kept clear of leaf litter, and a look over the fixings every couple of years. That is the honest version of low maintenance: much less to do, not nothing.

Big Fella Landscapes, and the Carpenter Who Prices Your Deck

Kane Dalman started Big Fella Landscapes in 2007, and thousands of residential and commercial projects have gone through the team since. Decking is carpentry, and Carpentry is a qualification we hold alongside Landscape Construction and Concreting. Landscape Construction is the work we do as a landscaper in Bunyip, on the yard a deck sits in. The wider range sits on our decking page.

Kane walks the property himself and writes the quote off what he sees, at no cost, then stays your point of contact through to handover. Your job gets its own crew and a place in the schedule, lands on time and on budget, and carries a 12-month workmanship guarantee. After-hours visits can be arranged.

Shade, Damp Boards and Grip Underfoot

Boards on the south side of a house, or under an established tree, stay damp for weeks through a Gippsland winter. Damp grows algae and mould, and a film of either makes a deck slippery. On the flat that is a nuisance. On a flight of steps down to the lawn it is how people fall.

Most of the answer is designed in rather than applied later. Gaps get set so water and leaf litter drop through, the ground beneath is graded to drain, and a grooved profile goes down where shade is unavoidable. Several composite ranges carry a tested slip rating, worth asking about for a deck that never sees sun.

Height, Permits and the Bushfire Question

Height comes first. In Victoria, a building permit is generally required once a deck’s finished floor level sits more than 800mm above the ground. How that applies to your address is confirmed with Cardinia Shire, the responsible council for Bunyip, or with a Registered Building Surveyor. A deck starting level with a back door can clear the mark at the far corner where the ground falls away. We settle the finished height and the engineering at the site visit, so any permit step is priced and scheduled from the start.

Bushfire attack level is the other one. Whether a BAL applies is decided parcel by parcel against the Victorian bushfire-prone-area mapping, not suburb by suburb. Where one applies it governs the timber species and substructure permitted, so answer it before settling on a board.

What Decides the Figure on the Quote

There is no honest per-metre rate, because two decks of the same area can be completely different builds. Area is only the starting point, and how much of it is a plain rectangle counts as much. Height is the multiplier, dragging deeper footings, taller posts, engineering, stairs and a balustrade with it. Below the boards, the choice between treated pine, hardwood and steel moves the figure, as does how far the footings go. The board itself is the line everyone compares, and rarely the biggest one. Last is access: whether machinery and materials reach the back of the block.

Ring Kane and Get It Measured Up

Whichever board you land on, the frame under it decides how long the deck lasts, and it is invisible from the day the boards go down. Phone Kane Dalman on 0412 881 728 or send the details through the enquiry form, and he will come and measure it up for nothing.