Hi all!

My wife and I are building a house (or, more to the point, having a house built ) in northern Brisbane - all going according to plan, we move in next week. In any case, one of my first projects will be to build a deck wrapping around the three sliding doors in the attached picture.

Difficulties as I see them are:

1. Drainage
The area outside the rightmost two doors is below normal ground level, and after rain currently turns into a pond for 2-3 days.

2. Termites
The termite protection is an "inspection zone" system. Essentially, the strip of exposed slab around the base of the wall must be visible, as regular inspections for termite tracks across this are the last line of defense for the house.

So, options:

1. Dig out the area, fill liberally with gravel to improve drainage, deck on posts.

If not the simplest, probably the cheapest approach. However, I'd have to make the decking boards closest to the house removable, and commit to regularly lifting them to inspect underneath.

2. New slab poured, with termite-proofing where it butts up to the existing slab. Deck joists mounted off slab. New inspection zone extending out past the perimeter of the deck.

A bit more costly, but I think this method would be much more straightforward than 1 - and wouldn't require any board removal.

Any advice would be welcome. As for why we didn't simply ask the builders to pour a larger slab at the start, well... best you don't ask that question.

We have a very similar situation to the one described except have just one set of sliding doors and our termite barrier is Homeguard which is in the bricks below the weepholes. We want to build the deck at the same height as the bricks below the door to give a continuous living area.

Looking for recommendation as to whether it is a good idea to build a deck this low to the ground and some suggestions.

I was think much like BlondGecko that I would put some roadbase below it to suppress weeds and put some drains in to get rid of the pond when it rains.

As far as deck goes if your that low to the ground you have 2 options.

1. pour a concrete slab with top finish height approx 90mm below the finished deck height then batten over the concrete with treated pine 3 x 2 battens then deck it and screw the boards so any board can be removed down the track

2. Dig out like a pit where you want the deck and put an agline or similar to get rid of the water .. through in weed mat and blue metal if your worried
pit will need a retaining wall to hold back the dirt and need to be approx 400mm below finished deck height to allow for structure ventilation and gravel

Concrete whilst daunting is easier and probably cheaper

cheers utemad

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