Timber Decking Guide

Discover our handy guide, offering expert advice on selecting the finest sustainable Scottish timber, choosing the perfect design, and ensuring quality installation. Elevate your outdoor space with our premium decking timber and professional tips for a stunning, long-lasting deck.

Rob Edmonds - Decking 2

Timber Decking

When considering investing in sustainable timber decking and choosing the most suitable option for the landscape, weather, and budget, you can always look at our handy guide on wood decking vs composite decking. Ultimately, here at Logie Timber, we offer smooth decking and grooved top-face decking profiles. Both options come with anti-cupping groves on the base.

Timber Decking Grades

We offer two different types of decking grades, ensuring we have the right grade wood for your project. a standard and a premium grade timber decking board.

  • Standard grade boards – these are dimensionally accurate but can have sapwood on all sides making it the ideal and cheaper choice if the decking is going to be under cover out of the rain or if you plan to treat your decking with a preservative.

  • Premium grade boards- these have hardwood on the full top face of the board making it as durable as possible. This gives the best lifespan when exposed to harsher conditions year round.

Treatment can still be applied to both grade boards to further increase their lifespan allowing you to enjoy your decking for longer.

Timber decking board Lengths

Generally speaking, we have two different types of timber decking boards;

  • Mixed length – Where we visually grade each board by hand and cut out any sections that don’t make the grade (such as missing knots, splits or large sap pockets). These timber decking boards are supplied to you in random lengths down to a minimum of 1m to make up to total linear meters required for your build.

  • Full length –  Our standard length of timber cladding is 4.8m long but we also offer 3.6m and 6.1m if stocks allow. 6.1m boards are 10% more expensive due to the extra cost of sourcing such long logs.

Fitting Timber Decking Boards

How to fit the boards?

We recommend a 5mm gap between the decking boards and 400mm to 600mm spacing between the joists. It is also important to build in a slight angle on the timber deck so the water can run off and not sit and pool on the decking boards.

What fixings to use?

Coated or stainless timber decking fixings are a must to avoid any issues in the future with rust and the screws failing.

  • Direct fix through the top of the board – The boards are 27mm thick and the fixings should be 2-3 times the thickness of the board. We recommend a Rothoblaas 5×60 or 5×70 stainless steel screw (link to the product on the shop)
  • Hidden fixing are a great options for the smooth decking boards as it keeps the top of the boards clean and free from any fixings. We recommend a Rothoblaas Terrlock (link to the product on the shop). These have the added benefit of keeping the decking boards off the joist which is often a common area for rot.

Treating Timber Decking Boards​

A premium decking board if fitted correctly is expected to last in excess of 15+ years. If a treatment is applied and kept up to date then this can be considerably more.  Treatment of the decking boards isn’t essential as the larch is a naturally durable decking timber. Still, some form of treatment is recommended to extend the life of the deck and improve traction on wet boards.

We recommend Treatex exterior oils for the treatment of the timber decking boards, these come in a range of colours and soak into the wood to offer a long lasting, environmentally friendly, alternative to full pressure treated tanalised methods.

A specific anti-slip timber decking oil which provides a clear anti-slip finish can be applied over a coloured coat and does not have a gritty feel underfoot.

Treatex Anti Slip Decking Oil is manufactured on a base of natural sustainable raw materials, including sunflower oil and soybean oil and is free of toxic substances.

It provides sustainable and durable protection for your Scottish timber decking, whether you choose smooth decking or grooved decking option and has been designed to reduce the risk of slipping on exterior wooden surfaces, which are susceptible to becoming slippery due to the accumulation of moisture, moss, algae and lichens.

>> 2.5L will cover approximately 17.5m²-25m² in one coat, depending on the decking wood type (rough, sawn, planed). In corrugated timber, consumption may double due to increased surface area.