Tips for Choosing the Best Decking Material
New Zealanders certainly love their decks. We recently discussed New Zealanders’ passion for their decks in Why People Love to Improve Their Homes with a New Deck.
We have recently produced a new consumer guide that will give you more information about the pros and cons of our surprisingly wide range of decking material.
It may surprise you to learn that not all decking materials are equal. The best decking material for you will depend on your personal circumstances, including your budget, level of maintenance you are prepared to do, the type of end look you want, your deck’s anticipated lifespan, your level of concern for the eco-friendliness of the decking material, and the ease of installation.
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Imported Hardwood Decking
Heavy Hopea
Heavy Hopea is an attractive light to medium brown SE Asian hardwood timber ideal for decking. It is a comparatively expensive hardwood but makes up for this with its ease of installation, low maintenance and long lifespan. We receive it from eco-friendly sources. Heavy Hope can be relied on to provide you with a high-end look.
Kwila / FJ Kwila
Kwila is a medium-priced South East Asian tropical hardwood. It is frequently used in New Zealand for decking. One reason for its popularity is its relative ease of installation, excellent lifespan and low maintenance requirements. You can easily build a high-end deck using kwila. It starts as an attractive reddy-brown colour, and then ages to driftwood grey when left to weather. There is a danger that it will bleed tannins when it is first laid, so you will need to remain alert for this.
Garapa
Garapa is another medium-priced decking material option. It is a South American tropical hardwood and is our most eco-friendly imported hardwood timber. It can be used to make an attractive looking quality deck, that begins as a golden colour, and like most of the imported hardwoods weathers to driftwood grey. Like most of these timbers, garapa decking timbers are easy to work with and are tough enough to give a long lifespan.
NZ Decking Timber
Pine natureDeck
Pine natureDeck is our Premium Pine NZ decking timber. It is hard-wearing and will survive tough New Zealand conditions for a long lifetime – even Canterbury Sou’westers. It is extremely easy to use. New Zealand pine is very eco-friendly and is an essential part of New Zealand’s building industry. natureDeck pine is even better as it is a healthy, arsenic-free alternative to regular decking.
Macrocarpa
Another New Zealand grown option for your decking timber is macrocarpa, an exotic cypress softwood timber. It is a comparatively cheap timber, ideal for the more budget conscious deck builder. Despite this, macrocarpa still has good strength and is naturally durable. Apart from the need to coat your macrocarpa deck with a penetrating oil in its first year, these decks are surprisingly durable, needing minimal maintenance.
WPC (Wood Plastic Composite) Decking
Modwood
Unlike the rest of our decking timbers, Modwood WPC is a wood plastic composite. Indeed it is New Zealand’s only CodeMark Certified WPC Decking.
Modwood is our premium decking product and represents the future of decking. Modwood ticks all the boxes, it has extremely easy maintenance requirements, long life span, relative ease of installation and it is top in terms of eco-friendliness because it’s made from recycled materials.
It is high end product that is not our cheapest but certainly our best.