FOCUS ON Decking

Take your outside living spaces to the next level with new decking in traditional wood or contemporary composites

Best for doing it yourself

If you want to have a go at creating your own new deck in your back garden, the Power decking kit has all you need to make the job an easy one. It comes complete with a pre-assembled base, and there is also the option of a set of pre-assembled handrails with Patrice newel posts to enclose up to three sides. The wood is high- grade Scandinavian timber that has been pressure treated to make it resistant to the weather and rot. There are green screws and bolts colour-matched to the decking with an organic coating to protect against corrosion. The decking kit comes in a range of sizes, from 4x4ft to 20x20ft, to fit gardens big or small. The kit starts from £270, Power.

Best for the environment 

For the ultimate in green decking, EnviroBuild goes all in with its Hyperion composite decking, which is not only made with nearly 90 per cent recycled materials, but produced using renewable energy, and 10 per cent of the profit from sales go to sustainable sources. It has a lower carbon footprint than timber, but looks convincingly like the real thing with a textured wood grain finish. The other beauty of composite is that it doesn’t require painting, sealing or staining over it’s long lifetime, so there is minimum maintenance. The non-slip, anti-splinter deck means even little ones can run round on it in safety. Hyperion decking costs from £39.59 per 4m length for the hollow-cored Explorer, and £53.49 per 4m length for the solid-cored Frontier.

Best for value