Why a Deck Will Enhance Your Summer

There’s no getting away from the fact that times are tough from a money point of view, and more and more people are thinking twice before booking their summer holiday.  If you’re in a dilemma about whether to bite the bullet and book your week or two away, perhaps the answer could be nearer to home?  Staycations, as they have become known in recent years have become really popular.  Essentially, this concept involves staying at home during your time off and maybe enjoying a few days out here and there.  Depending on what you do with your time, this sort of break can be really rewarding.

A great compromise for your summer holiday is to choose a staycation and do a project that will allow you to better enjoy your stay at home.  A superb way of doing this is investing in a deck.  A deck will typically cost less than a family holiday and will give you years and years of pleasure.  So, if you’re debating what to do this summer, why not give this some thought?  If you have garden space that you don’t use for some reason or another, a deck could truly transform how you use and enjoy your outside space.

Here are three great reasons to invest in a deck this summer:

It will increase your living space.
It will enable you to entertain family and friends, year round.
It will add value to your property.

A well-planned decking project will give you no end of pleasure, year round.  Long after your holiday has been forgotten about, if you invest in a deck you’ll still be reaping the rewards.  If you think that adding a deck to your home could transform your year-round outdoor living, then now’s the time to be planning your project.  You don’t need anything complicated to get your deck project up and running.  All you need is a pen and paper, some imagination and a tape measure.

Before you start to plan your decking project, it’s important to draw a plan of your entire outside area, with reasonably accurate measurements.  Although at this stage a few centimetres here and there won’t cause a problem it is important later to be really accurate with your measurements.  Here’s a few things to think about when planning your deck:

What do you want to use your deck for? It is important to establish whether you want to use your deck to drink a quiet cup of coffee outside of your bedroom of a morning, or if you want it for entertaining friends and family.  What you want to use your deck for will not only affect its location, it’ll also affect its size and maybe even its style.

Should it butt on to your house or not? This will depend entirely on which rooms in your home give on to your garden and also the lie of the land around your home.  If your living rooms and kitchen give on to your garden, ideally you’ll plan your deck to enable access from one or other of the rooms depending on what you want to use your deck for.  You should also take into account things like morning and evening sun location to make sure you’re maximizing your opportunity.

Once you’ve planned what your deck will look like and where it’ll be, it’s time to study all the wood options and weigh up the pros and cons of each.  One thing that’s well worth adding to your budget is some kind of awning or canopy that will help make your deck weatherproof, so if you decide to invest in a deck rather than go on holiday, you won’t be put out if it rains!