The Problems?
Drainage
Upon visiting the site straight away you could see drainage was a problem as the garden was not level, causing the water to sit at the front of the garden under the decking and at the side of the house. As you can imagine the stagnant water had caused the decking to be susceptible to rot by constantly being submerged in water the sub-structure had started to get weaker due to wet-rot which had started growing significantly on the struts.
Algae
Another problem was grip as the decking had become slimy because of algae which is a problem for every Decking material as it can survive mostly anywhere even if the deck is clean it can be bird dropings food anything you can think of can be a source of food for algae so it is recommended at least once a year that you clean your Decking if it is timber be very careful when power washing.
Solutions?
Removing the Decking
It was quite a large deck to begin with so we began removing it in a controlled fashion in sections, we make sure all timber is recycled so we dismantle the deck in sections using a chainsaw to make it easier to remove and safer not brute force with a sledge although there are some situations which nothing else will do it like a sledge hammer, our sledge even has a Name, yes we named our sledge The Uncle.
The decking boards are removed in sections and the sub-structure is exposed, once removed we start cutting the sub-structure in sections and remove it also the ground underneath was wet and soft in one particular area more than others so we knew this was the place to dig our drainage pit as the water naturally wanted to flow to this location.
Drainage
We Began By digging across the middle of the garden just in front of where the decking will begin, to allow us to install our drainage pipe which has perforated holes to allow water enter and flow down it to your soak away pit ensuring a dry and pleasant garden no more mucky puddles from stagnant water.
The drainage pipe was placed in front of the proposed decking area then went along the angle underneath the decking where it was covered in stone chippings and soil the drainage pipe must always be sloped downwards for water to flow into your soak away pit which is normally 1m x 1m and filled with gravel to allow the rain water to fill it then soak away over time.
