Why timber still wins on the North Shore
Around Castlecrag, Northbridge and Mosman, decks sit against sandstone, bush and federation brick — and real timber simply belongs there. It starts beautiful and ages into something better; it's cooler underfoot than composite in summer; and when a board is scratched or stained, it sands back to new. The price of all that is maintenance: an oil every 12–18 months if you want it looking rich rather than silver. I'll tell you honestly whether that's you — and if it isn't, I'll walk you over to compositewithout a hard sell either way.
Species I build with
Spotted gum is the deck most people picture when they picture a good one — dense, richly figured, naturally durable, and BAL-29 compliant for bushfire-prone leafy blocks.Blackbutt gives you the blonde, contemporary look, takes coatings evenly and shares that bushfire rating. Merbau is the stable, dependable value pick that handles my humidity without fuss — I pre-wash boards to manage its famous tannin bleed.Treated pine is the honest budget answer for painted decks and structures the eye won't linger on. All boards are laid with stainless or hot-dip galvanised fixings; near the harbour, cheap screws are where good decks start dying. For the full side-by-side — durability classes, maintenance rhythm and bushfire ratings — see mydeck materials comparison.
The substructure is the deck
Boards get the compliments; framing does the work. I set posts on engineered footings — never in soil — frame in H4-treated pine or steel, size joists and bearers to span tables rather than habit, and ventilate low decks so timber can breathe. Decks attached to the house get flashed properly at the ledger, the single most common failure point I'm called to repair. If your deck is elevated 1m or more, a compliant balustrade is required — designed in from the start, in timber or stainless wire to suit the house.
Keeping it beautiful
I hand every timber deck over freshly oiled, with the schedule written down: first re-coat at 12 months, then as the sun dictates. If you'd rather never think about it, myhome maintenance visits can carry the oiling — same crew, same standard.