Help with choosing the best decking material

[Trav777]

Hi everyone,

I noticed this type of decking on the bunnings website: SpecRite 140 x 21 x 5700mm Concealed Fix Decking.

The engineered mixed hardwood core of the product is made up with merbau, jambu and northern box species. So 3 woods stuck together. Each individual wood seems very similar to merbau but cant find anything on the 3 mixed into 1.

Does anyone know much about this or have installed this mixed hardwood decking? There doesn't seem to be much info out there about it. Otherwise, merbau seems like a great option. Any tips and wisdom in this area wood (ha, see what I did there) be muchly appreciated. 

Thanks in advance,

Trav.

[Jason]

Hey @Trav777

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community. It's fantastic to have you join us and we are looking forward to reading more about all your projects and plans. 

Could you please tell us a little more about your decking project? It will help members to recommend the right products for you. For example, it might be helpful to know if your deck is near a pool, if it is undercover or exposed to the elements, and where you are based.

Once you provide a little more detail about your proposed build I would be happy to tag some of our more experienced members to share their thoughts with you. The ever-helpful @MitchellMc will be back on the site tomorrow and will also be able to provide you with more information about the SpecRite product you mentioned. 

Please let me know if you ever need a hand getting the most from the site. 

Thanks,

Jason

[MitchellMc]

Hi @Trav777,

Many thanks for your question. Mixed hardwood laminated decking is a reasonably new product to the market and you might not find much information out there. I'm not sure if you noticed but on our webpage, there is an addition PDF which gives a bit more information about the products specifications.

As with many of our other laminated board products, the lamination process has allowed our suppliers to manufacture products which previously were not available to the market. If you compare the Specrite 140 x 21 x 5700mm Concealed Fix Decking to 140 x 19mm KD Select Grade Merbau Decking Linear Metre you'll note that you are paying close to the same price but getting 2mm thicker boards and the pre-milled grooves for concealed fixings. With lamination, manufacturers have the ability to produce a perfectly straight board that resists traditional bowing, warping and twisting issues associated with solid boards.

With any new product to the market, it is great to get feedback from anyone that has already used it and compare that against the myriad of members which have used solid Merbau decking and have been thrilled with the results. 

Let me mention a few of our amazing members @Neo19, @dermotmunro, @Tara86, @Sidney7, @LePallet and @Jimi to see if they would like to comment on their experience with solid Merbau decking.

Please let me know if you need further information or had any questions.

Mitchell

[Tara86 · Accepted solution]

@Trav777  Welcome to the workshop! 

We built our decking using merbau. We did a lot of research and was contemplating which hardwood would be the best. This was 3 years ago and it’s amazing to see so many different options available now for decking. The major factor for us was the cost. We wanted a floating deck 4.5m x 12m which was made difficult as were on a large slope with sandy soil. So the prices to have someone else do it ranged from $20k and up. Basically no one wanted to do it. We were able to do it for around $7000. 

We found merbau fantastic to work with. The wood comes in many different shades so it added to the effect. It does darken over time so our deck is a now a dark brown with reddish tinge. Its so strong and durable. We’ve had no issues with splitting or sagging. The kids are able to play basketball, ride bikes and it even handled our friendly ping pong tournament with neighbours.  So overall it was affordable, easy to install, great colour, low maintenance and will last a long time. Hope this helps! Good luck with your project.

[Trav777]

Wow thanks for your response @Tara86! The missus and I have decided to go for the merbau We're yet to hear a bad thing said about it (apart from the leaking tannin). Great effort on installing the deck yourselves

[Tara86]

@Trav777  Your more than welcome!! Thank you glad I could help. Ha ha it was our first major project together (with only 1 argument too). 

Yep I agree about the leaking tannin. It was the only issue we encountered too. Give it a good sand and let it weather a bit and problem is solved. Best of luck with the project