Decking/raised bed dilemma

8 years ago

Hi All, I'd appreciate your thoughts and ideas on the decking and possible raised beds we are planning.
We've just had a small 3 x 3 metre kitchen extension on the rear of the house, as you can see from the photos the garden is quite a bit lower than the house. We want to put a decked area to the left, this will give a nice seating area at the rear of the dinning room and side of the kitchen. But we're not sure if it would be best to bring the decking round to the front of the extension and have steps down to the lawn across the width or whether to just have the deck on the left and build raised beds (thinking maybe using sleepers) under the kitchen window?

Featured Answer

Amanda Shipman

8 years ago

Freshscaped makes a good point about considering the side access too. Think about connecting spaces rather than 'filling in'.

I'd be tempted to give you stronger horizontal lines by taking a patio / deck from the house and out beyond the extension with full width steps into the garden. Stand at the end of your garden looking towards the house, take a photo, print it out at A4 and with tracing paper over the top, trace out a bold design. Try several different ideas. Then mark one of them out in your garden with sticks and string to get a better idea of how it would work. Think about how you use the whole garden, where you'd like to sit, and how you walk from one doorway to another. Be generous with your spaces!

Good luck!

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Comments (21)

benburnett
8 years ago
I'd possibly forgo the idea of decking or beds in front of the extension solely because of access to the drains. I think decking square up to the wall of the extension with steps leading off onto the garden would be lovely. Under the window is an ideal place to plant up, especially with climbers to take away the stark newness an addition gives. Roses or Clematis would look beautiful framing the window and leave plenty of space add interest underneath with other combination. Whatever you do it seems to be very versatile and I wish you luck with the project.
rabbitingon
Original Author
8 years ago
Thanks for your input and good wishes
Benburnett. I like the idea of clematis around the windows, though I kind of wanted some sort of raised bed to try to disguise the massive height difference in the garden level to house level.
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Emily O'Byrne
8 years ago
If you are planning on raised beds at your extension you must make sure they aren't higher than the damp proof course otherwise there could be damp problems in the house. I would suggest you build a raised bed and leave a few mms between the bed and house. I wouldn't bother with climbers they have a habit of out growing their space and need constant pruning to keep the flowers where you want them. Have a look at some mixed planting shrubs and herbaceous plants could work.
Emily O'Byrne
8 years ago
I would do a raised patio area at the French doors as I find that wooden decking is slippery when wet and needs a lot of maintenance.
PRO
The London Tile Co.
8 years ago
Emily is right, patio might be better than decking. We stock wood effect porcelain tiles which can be used to create a decking effect without the maintenance of wood. We also sell 'pedestals' which can be used to create a raised patio, and the individual tiles can then also be removed to access drains etc. Check out the Valverdi range online here. Good luck!
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Amanda Broughton Garden Design
8 years ago
Is the area you are planning on decking in a sunny aspect. If it is, then decking should be fine and would be more cost effective than paving. However, if it is in shade for most of the day, Avoid decking as it becomes very slippery in wet weather. An alternative would be reconstituted wood decking such as Millboard. Although pricey, it looks great, it will require no maintenance and is slip resistant.
rabbitingon
Original Author
8 years ago
The decking area faces East and gets the sun in the height of summer (when we have a summer) until around 1:30pm. We were already thinking of using the composite decking as we have already used a similar product to replace the cladding on the front of the house
It really is the design aspect we need help with. If we stop the decking in line with the conservatory and then have steps down to the lawn, we think the height of the area under the kitchen window will need to be disguised. Which is why we were thinking raised beds.
I think I might look to get a garden designer round for a consultation.
PRO
User
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
rabbitingon, go for the way you would like it to look. There are many permutations of how either a patio, deck or a raised bed could be designed and implemented to ensure ease of access to the drains or anything else for that matter.

With regards to the materials, sleeper retaining walls for raised beds work well. For decking materials, you could do worse than recycled plastic with excellent non-slip properties. We have recently completed a project which uses both, take a look [via this link[(https://www.houzz.co.uk/projects/1243502/giles-new-garden).

Is that a driveway to the right of the picture? If so and depending upon the time and budget available to you, it may also help to have a diminishing retaining wall, applying it to the picture given, to the right of the extension. This would begin at the edge of the extension and fall in height as it extends away from it, whether in a line or stepped. So the raised bed, patio or decking would then be able to have a terraced effect leading away designed to step the height down to the current lawn level. The mind boggles with the possibilities.

I wish you well with it but please keep us informed. it looks like a fascinating challenge.
Sonia Stickley
8 years ago
If you want decking go for composite decking. No maintenance and its none slip. Bit more expensive than wood but in the long run won't fall apart. We have just installed this and we love it.
PRO
User
8 years ago
@Amanda Shipman Designs, that's exactly how I would go about it. Except to use software to draw over with, deleting the background image when done. Rough outline at first, then once there are one or two ideas worthy of developing further, add more detail with pictures from different angles to get a real feel for how it will lay out in practice.

Sounds fussy? I can tell you as a practitioner that a few extra hours spent in the planning stage will save much sweat, many tears, several delays and a lot of wasted materials later. Or, if you pay somebody else to do the work, a significant amount of money.

Returning to the decking issue, I haven't tried composite as a material but would be happy to take a look. Hardwood and plastic (good quality stuff anyway) is more expensive than any of the "treated" softwood decking materials widely available but I can vouch for both. Recycled plastic has the added advantages of hygiene (simple wash off with plain water or gentle detergent gives a food quality surface), non-slip and the stuff we use has a 15 year guarantee.
roger a
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
have done similar with Freshscaped Ltd but used stones (cotswold buff) with plants in a pot. i'm more inclined to say do what they have done as it is a lot less maintenance than the decking if done correctly and also you will be standing on it a lot more than you think and solid footing by the main part of the house is always my option.
pete_bon_9838
8 years ago
I suspect that that area of deck wouldn't get much sunshine during the day so once wet would stay that way for longer than normal Decking gets very slippery when wet like that. consider using synthetic decking Its easily available and laid in the same way as normal timber decking. The good thing with decking -especially when there is a good underspace - is that it allows air to circulate and there is a less of a problem with unwanted guests ( foxes cats mice rats) over staying their welcome.
Angela Gordon
8 years ago
This is identical to what we have, although we are southeast and get sun until about 3.30, never had a problem with slippery decking, make sure it's swept and we treat ours with decking oil every yeaR.

we squared our decking off level with the end of the decking although with hindsight I would have loved it to travel around the corner.

its a great place to enjoy breakfast at the weekend and we have a patio heater that seems to work well in the space as it is enclosed by 3 sides
brian_impey
8 years ago
If you like the idea of using decking but are discouraged by some of the comments you have received with regard to slipperiness and maintenance then I would recommend that you look at using synthetic material (picture attached) rather than wood. If you extend the deck beyond the extension you could create steps down to the garden for the width of the dining room and a terraced planer in front of the kitchen, and sleepers would be ideal.
PRO
Garden Design Guru
8 years ago
Looking at the fall, I would use 3 levels and bring the decking right into the garden space with the last two.

The best single piece of advice I could give you about decking is to set it on plastic posts. They are costly but they will last indefinitely and you don't need more than 300mm in the ground, so not very long sections, set in concrete of course.
Bella Tanner
8 years ago
This might inspire you. I had a wall with quite a height difference from where garden started and installed sleepers as well
rabbitingon
Original Author
8 years ago
Thank-you Clofty24, that's very helpful :)
PRO
User
8 years ago
@pete_bon_9838, @brian_impey, synthetic = plastic in the sense you use it. Polymer. Stretchy molecules. Plastic is acceptable as a material these days, mainly because it has well proven properties in a wide range of applications across a variety of the polymers blessed by the expression.

Synthetic comes across more as, hum, well, synthetic? Pretend. Not substantial. Fly-by-night. Pixel imagery without substance maybe?

The best plastic decking manufacturer I am aware of uses the word plastic in its name and would not dream of using the word synthetic. Come to think of it, when describing anything of substance, neither would I.

Lecture over. 'night folks. :-)
roger a
8 years ago
I've seen it done in a friends house in Fulham and it has rubber texture and it looks very good and expensive which I'm sure it was. It does not a pretend to be wood or granite. Whatever you do rabbitingon I'm sure it will be good.
brian_impey
8 years ago
Ouch Freshscape Limited! Take a look at the product used in my deck photograph at timbertech.co.uk and read about the composite nature of the material used. Yes there is plastic and wood pulp (both recycled) but the performance criteria and the warranty are very valuable to anyone installing a deck. Personally I would have used cedar (in preference to treated softwood) had I been left to my own devices, but a knowledgeable landscape designer advised that my north facing aspect would accelerate deterioration and the deck would likely be very slippery from autumn to spring.

Decking/raised bed dilemma

Amanda Shipman

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