Raised Timber Deck & Garden Refresh

A tired side return running down the flank of the house: uneven ground, poor drainage, and the sort of space most people write off as somewhere to keep the bins.

Building level over uneven ground

The ground fell away and was not worth trying to re-grade in a space this tight. A raised deck was the better answer — it spans the unevenness rather than fighting it, and it costs a fraction of what excavating and retaining would.

A weed membrane was laid across the whole footprint first, then a full joist frame set out above it on supports, levelled across its length so the finished deck sits true against the house. Everything is pressure-treated: this is timber in permanent contact with damp ground and shaded for much of the day, and untreated softwood in that position has a short life.

Timber was cut on site as the frame went up rather than pre-ordered to a cutting list, which is the sensible approach in a space where the walls are rarely as parallel as the plan suggests.

The deck

Boards were laid running the length of the return, which draws the eye down the space and makes a narrow area read as longer rather than as a corridor. Fixings were set out consistently and the edges finished cleanly against the fence line and the house.

The result is a level, usable terrace along the whole side of the house — somewhere to put a table and chairs, in a space that previously held nothing but mud.

Strip-out and returfing

The area was stripped out before any of the frame went down, so the deck was built off known ground rather than over whatever had accumulated on top of it.

The lawn was lifted and returfed in the same visit. A new deck alongside a tired lawn reads as unfinished — the eye takes the two together — and doing the turf at the same time is the difference between a finished garden and a new deck sitting in an old one.

Five days on site from first cut to finished deck.