
Timber and composite decking in Manchester — level ground at the back door of a long garden that falls away, built on proper foundations.
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Much of Chorlton, Withington and Didsbury is Victorian terraces and villas with long, narrow back gardens, and plenty of them drop away from the house rather than running flat to the end. You end up looking down at the garden from the back door instead of walking out into it.
A deck at the house end is the direct answer. It takes the first part of that fall on a frame and gives you level ground at the door, without anything being dug away or held back.
How far it can run depends on how fast the ground drops: past a certain height a deck becomes a raised structure, with edges, steps and bracing to think about.
The other thing these gardens have in quantity is shade.
Mature trees, tall houses on both sides and neighbouring roofs mean a deck in south Manchester can spend a good part of the year out of direct sun, and it will collect leaves every autumn whether or not the tree is yours.
Composite will not rot the way timber can and generally asks less of you year to year; timber looks warmer and can be treated and maintained.
In deep shade neither stays grippy by itself, so surface texture, boards set to shed water and airflow under the frame count for as much as the board itself.
On a long garden the back door is not automatically the right place for a deck.
The sun tracks down the plot through the day, and in a narrow garden hemmed in by houses the part you would actually sit in at six in the evening is often halfway down or right at the bottom.
A deck at the far end makes a destination of the garden; a deck at the door is the easier one to carry a tray of food out to.
On the bigger, opener plots at Wythenshawe there is often room for both.
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Learn moreIt is worth deciding that before anything is built. A deck at the far end makes a destination of the garden; a deck at the door is the easier one to carry a tray of food out to. On the bigger, opener plots at Wythenshawe there is often room for both.
It depends where it goes and what shape it is. A deck running the full width at the house end reads as part of the house and leaves the garden beyond it.
One set at an angle, or built in two levels, breaks up the corridor feeling a long plot can have.
No, but it moves the attention onto the surface and the sweeping. Leaves left to break down can make any deck slippery, composite included.
Texture on the boards, a fall that sheds water and airflow under the frame all help, and a brush in November helps more.
Often, though a raised deck tight against a boundary is where overlooking and planning rules start to matter, and that is something to check rather than assume.
The frame also needs room to be built and to breathe.
It gives you more choice.
On an open interwar plot the deck does not have to sit against the house at all, so it can go where the evening sun lands and where there is some shelter, and it can be a squarer shape than the runs we build in the terraced streets.
Thinking about decking for your Manchester garden? Get in touch today for a free, no-obligation quote and honest advice.