Hardwood and Softwood Decking

Today there are more choices than ever in types of wood and even composite materials to select from when it comes time to plan a deck. Wood species like teak, mahogany, and western red cedar remain popular choices and even the new composites are surprisingly natural looking. On top of that composites never warp, and are completely resistant to rot as well.

Decks look great and make a backyard in particular far more usable for activities like sun tanning, barbequing or when friends are visiting. A good deck can take a dead area of your yard and convert it into a centre for activity, while it also reflects positively on the value of your home.
Now for years redwood (a softwood decking) was the primary popular choice for outdoor decks, and this was for several reasons. First and foremost it not only looks great but redwood is also resistant to termites, and dry rot. Redwood planks also don't warp like other structural grades of wood tend to do when exposed tom the elements.

Also next to redwood, other more exotic hardwoods like mahogany and teak were comparatively quite expensive, but then things began to change. The biggest change came in the way of price hikes due to logging moratoriums on vast areas of timber on the west, and east coasts of Canada.

At the same time logging rules in the US were amended to prevent tree cutting near streams and rivers, and also make it more difficult for a tract to qualify for clear cutting. So less available redwood meant higher prices and the higher prices on it have climbed, other more costly hardwoods began begun to look more attractive.

So as builders and homeowners did the math, and decided to take a look at hardwoods that in earlier years would have been considered exotic and hard to find, lumber suppliers began to respond to market demand by making these once difficult to find woods more available. They're also taking necessary steps to insure that they've been harvested in a sustainable fashion.

So today when you step out the backdoor of a newly built home, or one that has gone through a backyard upgrade that included one or more decks, there's just no telling what type of wood you'll be walking on. One thing is for certain though, and that is whether it's classic softwood like redwood or cedar, or any one of the amazing hardwoods, the deck will look great.

This is because not only has the overall quality of the decking wood that's now available gone up as a whole, but designers, builders, and even more experienced carpenters are creating better finished work. Deck designs that only used to be seen in architectural magazines attached to extraordinary homes, are now commonly being built on homes and condos up and down streets all over the UK, the US, and Canada.

International Timber supplies timber and timber products including Softwood Decking to a diverse range of industry sectors in the UK. Visit the website for more details.