Wood decking blade

What is a wooden deck?

An attractive wooden deck is an ideal place to spend your leisure time. In keeping with the style of the house, it makes a comfortable addition to the home, where you can spend many pleasant hours. A terrace can be simply designed or fitted out with the finest accessories, making it one of the most important areas of your home. That's why you need to think carefully about the look of your ideal terrace.
If you wish, it can include seating, plants, privacy screens, a kitchen, railings, storage and perhaps a swimming pool.

Why choose a wood deck?

A wood deck will help you realize your vision of a unique outdoor space with a natural look and warm ambience.
If you prefer the look of wood, you can choose between solid natural wood and synthetic composite wood. It's simply a question of preference and maintenance that makes the main difference.
Wood is more pleasant to walk on than tiles or concrete, and your garden will remain beautiful and natural. This material also offers the advantage of making your outdoor space entirely personalized, and integrating a wide variety of elements in different styles. Building a pool area with cabins, storage or shading in the same material will create consistency in design.
For example, if you like classic French design, you'll certainly love this type of terrace, but it can be adapted to any style, whether rustic, classic or modern. Any home can benefit from a wood deck. It's only when your home and outdoor spaces are in harmony and integrate all the elements you consider important that your home is perfect.

What type of wood should I use?

When it comes to building a deck, wood is a material that's warm, environmentally friendly, durable and easy to work with. It's important to note, however, that not all types of wood can be used for decking. Your terrace's exposure to sunlight or humidity, for example, will influence your choice of wood... Take into account your budget, the type of wood you want, its appearance and characteristics, as well as the wood class. Let's move on to the types of wood you can use for decking:

Pine:

Softwoods such as Douglas fir, autoclave-treated pine and larch come from France and Europe, while red cedar comes from North America. Compared to red cedar, they are one of the least expensive wood species. To maintain good physical and aesthetic durability, this family of woods requires regular maintenance.

The best-selling softwood at the most affordable price is autoclaved pine. The former greenish hue is now mostly replaced by a characteristic brown color called "autoclave brown". Despite this, it has a lifespan of around 10 to 15 years.

Oregon pine, or Douglas fir, is highly resistant to fungi and insects, and has a lifespan of around 15 years. Applying a brown or gray saturator to Douglas fir enhances its natural look and texture.

Naturally hardy, red cedar takes on a gray tint over time and has a lifespan of around 15 years. It has the highest purchase price of all softwoods.

Exotic woods

These are the most suitable wood species for creating a terrace. The most expensive woods are Padouk, Ipé, Garapa, Cumaru, Taliou and Teak, imported from Central Africa, South America and Asia.

The dense, naturally rot-resistant and weather-resistant nature of these woods makes them a popular choice for decking due to their inherent durability.

The most common use for ipe, an exotic South American wood, is for decking. In addition to its beautiful grain, it has a dark reddish-brown color. In recent years, the price of this product has risen considerably.

Because of its protected status, teak, a wood native to Asia, has become extremely difficult to obtain. As a result, its price has also soared.

Padouk is a beautifully grained red wood from Central Africa. This wood has the advantage of being dense, which prevents it from splitting. No exotic wood is as long-lasting as padouk. It will last for many generations, despite its high cost!

South American Cumaru wood is quite nervous and can warp if not dried properly, despite its high resistance to stains. It is therefore necessary to ask your supplier about drying after cutting.

Due to their high density, exotic woods are more resistant to weathering and staining than softwoods. When you buy this type of wood, you're investing in a high-quality material of noble origin. A wooden deck should use this product.

Thermo-heated wood

After high-temperature treatment, woods such as ash or poplar can be used for decking after being thermally heated.
During treatment, the wood is heated in an oven to over 200°C to harden it. As a result, the decking becomes less susceptible to damage from fungi, mold and insects. Thermo-treated wood has a lifespan of around 20 years and costs the same as exotic wood.

Wood composite

It's only in the last 15 years or so that we've begun to build decks with this type of wood. Wood composites are hybrids of wood and plastic, very different from natural wood. They are manufactured using plastic and wood fibers, or sometimes hemp or bamboo fibers. The mass is colored with pigments. Exotic wood, which has suffered from massive deforestation, can be substituted.

Invisible fasteners allow boards to be installed without visible fasteners. Composite woods are fastened with snap-in fasteners, rather than screws like natural woods. Although this material is relatively resistant, it still requires maintenance, such as waterproofing.

Protection and care

It's important to remember that decking needs protection, whether it's softwood, exotic wood, thermally-heated wood or composite wood.
Generally speaking, there are two types of protective product. Protective films (lasures, varnishes) and impregnation products (deck saturators). The use of a film-forming product (film-former) causes the wood to delaminate over time, making it difficult to maintain. Unlike saturators, which are easy to maintain because they can be applied directly to the wood, saturators impregnate and nourish the wood.